Bitcoin price hits $19,000 while Ethereum is over $1,400

The market for the most popular cryptocurrencies has been on the rise. The cost of BTC after a two-month break was about $19,000, adding more than 10% since the beginning of this year. The Ethereum exchange rate has grown by almost 18%. Experts believe that the crypto market was supported by macroeconomic data from the US authorities, which inspired investors with confidence that the Federal Reserve would stop raising the key rate.

“In the cryptocurrency market, the correlation between tokens reaches 90%. Bitcoin is almost always a locomotive for other cryptocurrencies,” said Vladislav Antonov, financial analyst at BitRiver.

The total capitalization of the crypto market for the first time since December 11 overcame the mark of $890 billion. This is almost $100 billion higher than the values at the end of last year.

Dmitry Machikhin, CEO of the BItOK.org service, believes that the initiative to create a $1 billion fund for Binance to support the industry and the company’s plans to increase its staff have had a positive impact on the digital asset market. Recently, the head of the crypto company Changpeng Zhao announced his intention to expand the business and increase the number of staff by 15–30% this year.

According to Machikhin, there is no tendency to return to the bull market yet. And ENCRY Foundation co-founder Roman Nekrasov claims that “Bitcoin has already reached its ceiling in the current period of growth.” According to him, the value of BTC is likely to correct to $17,500.

The Fed is concerned that strict regulation of the crypto industry may alienate it from the traditional sector towards greater decentralization, which will provoke a destabilization of the entire financial market. At the same time, Michelle Bowman, a member of the Board of Governors of the regulator, noted that against the backdrop of the collapse of FTX and other adverse events for the industry, many conservative financial structures do not intend to suspend work with cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

“With stricter regulation, we would push the industry towards the non-banking sector, and this, in turn, would lead to less transparency and risks to financial stability. Now we are thinking about how to properly approach regulation so as not to cause serious rejection in the industry,” said the Fed spokeswoman.

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