​Crypto Traders Place Bets Ahead of Tuesday’s Fed Meeting. | Bitcoin Industry

​Crypto Traders Place Bets Ahead of Tuesday’s Fed Meeting.

The price of bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) rose slightly in the early hours of Tuesday after falling lower on Monday, as market participants positioned themselves for a potential “buy the news” event that may follow a key US Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting later today.

Ahead of today’s event, BTC remained down by 3% over the past 24 hours, trading at a price of USD 47,250, while ETH fell almost 5% over the same time period to a price of USD 3,815 as of 11:00 UTC.

The current prices still mark a recovery from overnight lows of USD 46,214 for BTC and USD 3,685 for ETH. At its highest during the Asian trading session on Tuesday, BTC reached as high as USD 47,500 while ETH moved above USD 3,820.

At the same time, US S&P 500 stock index futures were also down by about 0.3% for the day to USD 4,646.

The moves today come as the market is getting ready for a Fed meeting later in the day, which is expected to provide further clarity on the moves the Fed is planning for next year.

It has been widely expected that the Fed will signal that it will start raising interest rates again next year, but uncertainty remains as to how fast the central bank will move to wind down its massive asset purchase program, often referred to as ‘money printing’.

The uncertainty about the Fed’s plans has also grown with the emergence of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which market participants again fear could put a damp on the economy.