Bitcoin Price Prediction: Will BTC Hold Its Last Support or Flush to $52,000 Before FOMC

The setup going into this had been building for weeks. While $BTC traded in a narrow range since June, Binance OI had been climbing steadily, reaching $8.15 billion on Wednesday as futures increasingly drove price action while spot traders sat on the sidelines. That accumulation of leveraged longs in the low $60,000 zone created a fragile structure that any downside volatility could unwind quickly.

CoinGlass put total 24-hour cross-crypto liquidations at $236 million, confirming the flush is already underway rather than still pending.

CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju added a broader view, stating that the stars have not aligned for a Bitcoin bull market yet. His on-chain indicator heatmap shows multiple metrics still in bear territory, consistent with what Glassnode has separately described as Bitcoin’s longest capitulation phase since the end of the 2022 bear market.

FOMC Minutes, PCE, and September Hike Odds

The macro story around Bitcoin this cycle is not the familiar one. Rate cuts are off the table. What is actually moving markets is whether the Fed hikes, and that probability has been swinging wildly enough to move $BTC by several percent in either direction within days.

Two weeks ago, CME FedWatch put the odds of a September 16 hike at 82.4%, driven largely by Strait of Hormuz oil supply fears reigniting inflation concern. After softer CPI and PPI data on August 13, those same odds fell to roughly 32% to 35%.

Polymarket currently sits at 52% for at least one hike before year-end versus 48% for none, a coin flip that reflects genuine disagreement inside the Fed itself. At the July 29 meeting, Cleveland’s Beth Hammack, Minneapolis’s Neel Kashkari, and Dallas’s Lorie Logan all voted for an immediate quarter-point hike, the first time three members have broken ranks together on the hawkish side since September 2016.

Related: Bitcoin Price Prediction Drops to $63K as 228K $BTC Floods Binance and ETFs Bleed $332M

Three Dates That Matter More Than Any Price Target

• August 19 — FOMC releases minutes from the July 28 to 29 meeting. Markets will parse how close the 9 to 3 vote came to flipping. If the minutes reveal more hawkish discussion than the post-meeting statement suggested, rate-sensitive assets including Bitcoin face an immediate downside reaction.
• August 26 — July PCE data, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, arrives as the last major inflation read before September. A hot print keeps the hike live. A cool print pushes it back toward the 2027 timeline.
• September 16 — The actual FOMC decision, where a hike rather than a cut is the live tail risk. Bitcoin has been trading the change in hike odds, not the hawkish rhetoric itself, so the direction of the September probability between now and then is the number to watch.

$BTC Price Prediction: Upside and Downside Targets

Bullish Case, Target: $66,462 (100-day EMA)

$BTC reclaims the ascending channel on a daily close above $63,500, with the leveraged long cleanout completing rather than accelerating. FOMC minutes on August 19 reveal a less hawkish internal discussion than feared, keeping September hike odds below 30%. Spot buyers step back in as the flush clears overleveraged positions and $BTC pushes toward the 50-day EMA at $64,354 and the 100-day at $66,462.

Bearish Case, Risk Level: $52,000 (Chart Target)

The ascending channel lower boundary fails on a daily close and the leveraged long cleanout accelerates as stops cascade below $61,500. FOMC minutes reveal a closer internal vote than the market priced, pushing September hike odds back above 50%. The $236 million in 24-hour liquidations proves to be the start rather than the end of the flush, and $BTC exits the channel toward the $52,000 target marked on the chart.