- On Tuesday, Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh testified in front of lawmakers.
- Bitcoin investors are watching $80,000 as a key price level, analyst says.
Bitcoin traders are targeting a price of $80,000 as they hunt for clues on the path of US interest rates ahead of April’s Federal Reserve meeting.
Several tailwinds are lining up behind the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Max Kahn, CEO of investment firm Digital Wealth Partners, told DL News. Those include macroeconomic momentum and steady institutional demand, he said.
Khan flagged $80,000 as a key level to watch “where resistance or profit-taking could occur” before the Fed’s Open Market Committee on April 29.
Kahn’s take comes as investors scrutinise every detail of US senators' Tuesday grilling of President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve for when current Chair Jerome Powell’s term ends.
Lawmakers pressed Kevin Warsh, who is seen as a crypto bull, on politics, rates and the central bank’s future direction.
Fed chair Jerome Powell’s term ends on May 15. He has regularly clashed with President Donald Trump over interest rates.
The regime change at the US central bank is the single most important catalyst for risk assets like Bitcoin, which depends on the central bank’s liquidity plans, analysts told DL News last week. Lower rates are usually bullish for risk-on assets like cryptocurrencies.
“Risk assets are positioned for performance into year-end, and Bitcoin as a reserve-adjacent trade fits cleanly into that setup,” Jonathan Yark, head of quant trading at Acheron Trading, said in a note shared with DL News.
What did Warsh say?
On Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committee subjected Warsh to a comprehensive interrogation on how he would lead the Fed.
The 56-year-old former Fed governor never said whether he agrees with Trump’s view that interest rates are too high. No senator directly asked him if rates should be slashed within a certain timeframe.
Lawmakers did press him on whether Trump had asked him to promise lower rates. Warsh said that never happened.
“The president never asked me to predetermine, commit, fix, decide on any interest rate decision,” he said, adding that he would not agree to such a request.
Even so, lawmakers cast doubt over whether Warsh would maintain the central bank’s independence from political interference.
“[Trump] does not want an independent Fed, and in fact he has said, and I quote, ‘anybody that disagrees with me will never be Fed chairman,’” Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Banking Committee, told Warsh on Tuesday.
“And he's made clear that you are his sock puppet, saying last week that interest rates will drop ‘When Kevin gets in.’”
Trump has repeatedly clashed with Powell over the Fed chair’s unwillingness to slash interest rates due to the fragile macroeconomic conditions caused by the president’s chaotic foreign policies.
Most Fed chairs leave the central bank after their term is up. Powell hasn’t said whether he plans to do so when his term as chair ends.
During his hearing, Warsh stressed that he wants serious changes at the Fed. He said he’d look at trimming the central bank’s balance sheet and improving how inflation is measured. He also signalled he may review how often the Fed holds policy meetings and how it communicates with the public. The Fed currently meets eight times a year, though the law requires only four.
For Bitcoin investors, the hearing offered no clear promise of rate cuts in 2026.
Institutions muscle into crypto
Warsh’s potential nomination isn’t the only factor determining the price of Bitcoin.
While the extended ceasefire in the Middle East may alleviate some fears over the price’s volatility, another bullish sign is the fact that institutional investors seem to be piling into crypto.
Investors have poured in nearly $2 billion into Bitcoin exchange-traded funds so far in April, DefiLlama data shows.
Institutional buy-in combined with big Bitcoin investors easing off their sell-off, which triggered the market collapse in October, is likely to send the price up to $80,000 around early May, James Butterfill, CoinShares’ head of research, told DL News in March.
Crypto market movers
- Bitcoin is up 2.2% over the past 24 hours, trading at $77,984.
- Ethereum is up 2.8% over the past hours at $2,386.
What we’re reading
- Bitcoin surges to $76,000 despite tension rising over Iran negotiations — DL News
- Why privacy tech is immune to quantum threat coming for Bitcoin, says Coinbase — DL News
- Arbitrum Security Council Freezes $71 Million in ETH Tied to Kelp DAO Exploit — Unchained
- The most important DEX nobody talks about — Milk Road
- Crypto’s last shot? This risks sinking the Clarity Act before midterms, warns Galaxy analyst — DL News
Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com
