Bitcoin maintained its position around the $58,000 mark following the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged on Wednesday. Fed Chair Jerome Powell emphasized the strength of the economy, ruling out rate cuts despite concerns over disappointing inflation figures. After slipping below the $60,000 support level on Tuesday, BTC briefly dipped to $56,500 on Wednesday, coinciding with significant outflows of $563.7 million from U.S. spot ETFs, marking the highest daily figure since their listing in January. As of the latest update, bitcoin is priced at $58,282, reflecting a 1.4% increase over the past 24 hours. The broader digital asset market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), is up approximately 4%, driven by altcoins like SOL and AVAX leading a recovery from Wednesday's downturn.

The 11 spot bitcoin ETFs experienced combined net outflows of $563.7 million on Wednesday, extending a five-day streak of losses. Notably, Fidelity's FBTC led the outflows with withdrawals totaling $191.1 million, followed by Grayscale's GBTC, which saw $167.4 million pulled out. Bitcoin's price exhibited sensitivity to liquidity changes, witnessing a brief rally from $56,620 to $59,430 on Wednesday following the Fed's announcement of plans to curtail quantitative tightening measures in June and introduce a bond-buyback program to enhance liquidity in the bond market. However, this rebound was short-lived and failed to halt the ETF outflows.

In the midst of market fluctuations, Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock's head of digital assets, anticipates a new wave of inflows into bitcoin ETFs from institutional investors such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and endowments. Mitchnick highlighted a resurgence in discussions surrounding bitcoin allocation, emphasizing BlackRock's longstanding engagement with these institutions on the topic. He suggested that pent-up demand for exposure to bitcoin via ETFs could drive significant inflows in the coming months.

Chart of the Day:
The chart illustrates the spread between bitcoin's price on Bitfinex and the cryptocurrency's global average price. This week, the spread widened, with bitcoin trading at a premium of over $100 on Bitfinex. This discrepancy may indicate that traders on Bitfinex are capitalizing on buying opportunities amid market volatility.

As market dynamics evolve and institutional interest in bitcoin grows, investors closely monitor developments in the cryptocurrency space for potential opportunities and risks.