Investing.com – Bitcoin moved little on Thursday as a recent rally in cryptocurrency prices driven by buzz around a potential Ether exchange-traded fund was largely dampened by renewed concerns about high U.S. interest rates.

Fluctuating U.S. interest rates sparked mighty overnight gains in the stock market, putting pressure on cryptocurrency prices around the world.

fell 0.3% in the last 24 hours to $69,418.9 by 01:21 ET (05:21 GMT). The world’s largest cryptocurrency has returned to the trading range seen for most of the past two months, following a brief breakout earlier this week.

The world’s No. 2 token traded near two-month highs reached earlier this week, retaining most of the gains generated by the buzz around the potential approval of a spot Ether ETF for U.S. markets. The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to make a decision on the matter on Thursday or Friday.

Spot Ether ETF dominates the market

Ether rose slightly in the last 24 hours to $3,776.69. The token has seen a mighty rally this week after reports on Monday showed that the SEC asked some exchanges to clarify their filings for spot Ether ETFs.

While this move did mark some progress towards approval of cash market ETFs, it did not guarantee their approval.

The SEC is now scheduled to make a decision on spot ETF applications from VanEck, ARK Investment Management and seven other issuers on Thursday or Friday.

The approval of a spot Ether ETF could result in larger capital flows into cryptocurrency markets, similar to what was seen with the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF earlier this year. But these

Today’s cryptocurrency price: exchange rate fluctuations are increasing, prices are falling

Broader cryptocurrency markets have recouped most of the gains made earlier this week as concerns about high and longer U.S. interest rates intensify following hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve.

Minutes of a Fed meeting in slow April showed growing concerns among policymakers about persistent inflation, with some members even signaling they were willing to raise interest rates to tamp down inflation.

Multiple Fed officials also warned this week that the bank is not confident that inflation is steadily falling toward its 2% annual target.

While the chances of another rate hike are slim, any inflation stickiness will likely delay the Fed’s plans to start cutting rates. High long interest rates bode poorly for cryptocurrency markets, given that the sector tends to thrive in markets with low interest rates and plenty of liquidity.

Altcoin prices mainly fell on Thursday. lose 2.2, while it lost 1.2%. Among meme tokens, it fell by 0.7% and lost 0.8%.