November was not a great month for bitcoin investors. During that period, BTC reached its lowest mark in over two years.
At the beginning of the month, Bitcoin was boasting one of the rare upward trends it had during 2022’s second half, trading at around $21,400 on November 5th. Many specialists speculated that the cryptocurrency was beginning to withstand the SEC’s interest rate pressure, and was on its way to reaching $25,000.
However, three days later on November 8, Bitcoin crashed hard. The asset broke through the year-long $19,000 resistance line and reached $15,400 on the very next day.
The reason for the meltdown of the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap is due to the collapse of the 7th-largest crypto exchange, FTX.
The results of FTX’s bankruptcy were catastrophic for the entire crypto space, along with Bitcoin, nearly all other cryptocurrencies suffered substantial losses.
In fact, the collateral damage from the collapse reached the point of making longtime crypto investors wonder if the market would be able to recover in the short term.
And despite not going back to its previous $21,000 mark — Bitcoin showed a strong recovery in the intra-day graphics for November 29.
In the span of 24 hours, BTC went up by almost a thousand dollars, from $16,095 to over $17,000 — a 3.9% increase, according to CoinMarketCap.
SEC Hints at Scaling Back Interest Rate Hikes
A lot of Bitcoin’s recovery can be attributed to the most recent statement from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
On Wednesday, Powell hinted that the American Central Bank will likely slow down the pace of the hikes “as soon as December”.
However, despite the more optimistic news regarding the U.S. interest rates, the FTX meltdown is expected to power up the regulation discussions, which is bound to affect crypto prices.
Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis calls the failure of FTX a “wake-up call” for Congress. The senator is advocating for further federal by-partisan regulation of cryptocurrencies, citing the failure of Sam Bankman-FTX Fried’s exchange as a trigger for politicians to pay attention to crypto.