The price of Bitcoin fell under the $44,000 level after the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting were published, hiking expectations there will be a rate hike sooner than forecast.

At the time of writing, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap stood at $42,963. Whereas just after the Fed minutes were published on Wednesday, data from TradingView and Coinbase showed Bitcoin dropped 2.73% to $44,500 on the hourly chart.

The minutes stated: “Participants generally noted that, given their individual outlooks for the economy, the labor market, and inflation, it may become warranted to increase the federal funds rate sooner or at a faster pace than participants had earlier anticipated. Some participants also noted that it could be appropriate to begin to reduce the size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet relatively soon after beginning to raise the federal funds rate.” 

Other cryptocurrencies also declined. The second largest, Ether, plummeted to prices not seen since mid-October, standing at $3397,51 at the time of writing.  Binance Coin also fell to October 2021 levels, Bloomberg reports. 

Despite this latest Bitcoin price drop, deVere CEO Nigel Green is confident BTC and crpyto prices will “robustly rebound.” He said to the media: “I believe that we will see Bitcoin robustly rebound as the dust settles. This will then boost others in the crypto market. 

“This is because Bitcoin and other digital currencies are widely regarded as a shield against inflation mainly due to its limited supply, which is not influenced by its price.

“In this latest inflationary period, Bitcoin has outperformed gold which, until now, has always been almost universally hailed as the ultimate inflation hedge.”

Mr Green went on to add: “For people who are serious about building long-term wealth, this temporary volatility will be viewed as most other bouts of market turbulence: a buying opportunity.” 

Bitcoin had reached a record high of almost $69,999 at the beginning of November, after regulators in the U.S. permitted Bitcoin futures-based exchange-traded funds.