Keith Alan of Material Indicators said that hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell were “all bark and no bite,” which contributed to BTC price action below $25,000.

Bitcoin prices remained below $25,000 on June 15 after hitting a three-month low in a rapid reaction to changes in U.S. economic policy.

Hawkish Powell: "All bark, no bite"

BTC/USD lost more than 3% in the previous day’s trading, but then entered a consolidation phase, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.

The Federal Reserve is expected to pause its rate hikes for the first time since 2021 but remain hawkish, with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell saying another round of rate hikes may be needed to curb inflation.

“As I have noted before, virtually all of the committee participants expect that further increases in the interest rate will be appropriate by the end of the year,” he said at a news conference, referring to the views of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

As a result, markets are pricing in a more than 70% chance of a rate hike at the next FOMC meeting in July, according to data from the day’s CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

The mixed signals added additional downside pressure to the already fragile cryptocurrency price performance.

However, not everyone is pessimistic about the outlook. Keith Alan, co-founder of monitoring resource Material Indicators, described Powell as "all bark and no bite" when analyzing Fed events.

"He sent super hawkish signals to tame markets but actually took a super dovish pause," he told his followers on Twitter.

This suggests that Allen holds a cautious view of Powell's statements, believing there is a discrepancy between his words and his actual actions.

Choose your goal

More BTC price action is coming

Other analysis suggests that things could get more interesting for BTC price action.

Trading suite DecentTrader noted that Bitcoin is approaching leveraged long liquidity territory.

Despite the sideways movement of Bitcoin price, open interest increased by $439 million. Unlike in the past, the funding rate is trending down and approaching neutral levels. This means that longs and shorts are (almost) in balance.