The Federal Reserve continues to release interest rate hike signals, analysts: "Bitcoin faces severe tests in the next few days"

The crypto market fell slightly after the Federal Reserve released the minutes of the July Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) monetary policy meeting on Wednesday. U.S. central bank officials said that inflation is still "unacceptably high" and the Fed will continue to raise interest rates until the inflation rate drops to 2%. The tightening of monetary policy may happen "at some point", but it will depend on future data.

Crypto traders have been closely watching the Fed’s moves amid market turmoil. According to BitPush Terminal data, Bitcoin prices fell 0.9% within an hour after the release of the minutes, and fell 2.5% in 24 hours, trading at $23,344.35 at press time.

Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at GlobalBlock, wrote that Bitcoin will face severe tests in the coming days . The analyst said: "The 200-week moving average is slightly below the current price of $23,700, at around $23,000 - failure to maintain this level will indicate that there is further room for decline. The market reversal may be delayed in the next few weeks."

The Fed has raised interest rates four times this year, including 75 basis points at its last two meetings — the largest increase in history. Bitcoin, Ethereum and nearly every other token in the crypto market have been closely correlated with the U.S. stock market this year.

Buyers focus on lower bids

On-chain monitoring platform Material Indicators found that Bitcoin lacked upward momentum on a shorter time frame, with fewer buy orders on the Binance exchange and lower liquidity as buyers focused on lower bids. The analysis platform believes: "Even if it rises again, we still believe that the bear market rally is losing momentum."

Crypto analyst Matthew Hyland also tweeted that the overall Bitcoin market structure has been weak recently. He said: " Just last week, the market seemed to have initial signs of recovery. This seems to be short-lived."

Legendary commodities trader Peter Brandt says Bitcoin is forming a classic bearish pattern, suggesting it will head lower.

Brandt said in a tweet that Bitcoin is forming a rising wedge, a price action pattern that historically forms and eventually falls. He said: "There are so many people who agree with me that it makes me think it is very likely. Time will tell. One warning: most patterns evolve into something else, even a rising wedge, must complete first."

Fellow cryptocurrency analyst Kaleo said Bitcoin could see a pullback with a target price of around $21,000 before rising to around $28,000.

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, discussed the outlook for cryptocurrencies on CNN's "Markets Now." He said: "We are seeing stability. I wouldn't say if (the crypto winter) is completely over, that's hard for me to define. Bitcoin peaked at about $68,000. Today it's still at $23,000, it's bounced a little bit, but I'm not sure if it's really the bottom."