Cryptocurrency Continues Decline On Fears Of U.S. Fed Hawks

Coin Slips On Trump's Tariff War and U.S. Fed Rate Cut Discretion
BTC, Sideways...Altcoins Deepen Down, Major Altcoins Over 5% ↓
Michael Saylor "BTC, The Only Asset You Can Own" Amid BTC Fall

Cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin(BTC) fell on Fed. 18 due to the tariff war triggered by President Trump and the hawkish stance of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

President Trump announced on Fed. 15(local time) that mutual tariffs would be applied to countries that operate the VAT system, and the global asset market fell into inflation fears.

On top of that, the U.S. Fed froze its key interest rate in January and announced that it would be cautious about lowering interest rates, leading to a rise in gold prices, a 'safe asset', and a continued decline in cryptocurrencies, a 'risk asset'.

On Fed. 13, gold prices soared to $2942.70 an ounce. It is up 7% since the 20th of last month, the day of Trump's inauguration.

Bitcoin(BTC) went sideways on Fed. 18, and the decline of altcoins intensified. Major altcoins recorded a drop of more than 5%, giving investors fear.

◇Bitcoin = Bitcoin price is $95,556 at 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 17, 2025. The Bitcoin share(dominance) was 61.26%.

The long(up) and short(down) betting ratios in the Bitcoin futures market stood at 69.53% and 30.47%, according to the on-chain analytics platform Sigbtc.

Bitcoin has also continued to fall weakly, while 'Bitcoinist' Michael Saylor has re-released his praise for Bitcoin.

On Fed. 18, Saylor revealed the '21 principles of investing in Bitcoin' on his X account. Starting with "Those who understand Bitcoin buy Bitcoin, those who don't understand it criticize Bitcoin," he said, "Bitcoin is the only game we can all win" and "the only asset in the universe that we can truly own."

◇Upward Coin = The cryptocurrency that recorded the largest increase from the previous trading day at 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 17 was Civic(CVC), up about 6%.

Civic utilizes native token Civic as an Ethereum-based asset storage and identity guarantee platform.

As a technical feature, Civic users can encrypt personal information such as driver's license and passport and store it on the blockchain, and control what information will be provided to whom through public keys.

Using an on-chain solution called Civic Pass, Dapps can integrate functions such as Civic's KYC, screening, and bot prevention into applications.

◇Fear Greed Index = The cryptocurrency fear-greed index provided by Alternative has entered the 'Fear' phase with 47 points. The neutral phase is the section where psychological resistance and support of market participants appear. It is an important decision section for future price movements.

The cryptocurrency relative strength index(RSI) provided by Sigbtc was 37.1, which was in a 'neutral' state. RSI sets the relative strength between the upward and downward pressure of a particular asset price and is an indicator of a measure of over-purchasing and over-selling of a particular asset.

권승원 기자 ksw@blockstreet.co.kr