Bitcoin surges above $23,000 after Fed Chairman Powell says inflation is down

Bitcoin rose above $23,000 after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke at an event in Washington, DC, saying inflation was falling.

The price of 1% at $23,236.80, according to Coin Metrics. Ether rose 1.3% to $1,667.63. Bitcoin struggled to maintain the $23,000 level in the previous session after plunging below over the weekend.

Powell said during a question-and-answer session at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. that although the process of reducing inflation has begun, it “still has a long way to go” and that these are ” the very first steps.

“We expect 2023 to be a year of significantly lower inflation. It’s actually our job to make sure that’s the case,” he said. “I guess it will definitely take not just this year, but next year to come down almost 2%.”

Crypto prices briefly dipped along with the broader market, after Powell said future economic reports could force the central bank to continue raising rates aggressively.

Treasury yields fell during the speech – the 10-year fell 1 basis point and the 2-year lost 5 basis points. The US dollar index also fell. Yields and the dollar index tend to move inversely to crypto.

After surging around 40% to start the year, bitcoin experienced a downturn last week as investors who doubted the resilience of the rally brace for further macro volatility in crypto prices this year.