At the time of writing, U.S. markets were still in the process of steadying in their first hour, these of particular importance to Bitcoin traders given the considerable positive correlation between BTC and equities. This week, it emerged that the correlation between BTC/USD and the S&P 500, for example, had hit its highest in nearly 18 months.

Back in focus on the day was the Federal Reserve. In a widely reported Q&A session, Neel Kashkari, President of the Minneapolis Fed, revealed that there could be up to seven key rate hikes this year.

While potentially not all necessary, he explained, the Fed needed to deal with the issue of inflation.

"There's a danger to overdoing it. We're going to get information," he said, quoted by Reuters.

Attempts to tighten monetary policy nonetheless showed their impact on bonds markets, these coming down 11% from their all-time highs in the steepest retracement since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, markets commentator Holger Zschaepitz noted.

Global bond sell-off intensifies w/Bloomberg Global Aggregate Bond Index down almost 11% from ATH and so deep in correction territory for 1st time since GFC. pic.twitter.com/O62L67k27K

Bitcoin in turn could see "headwinds" to come, Bloomberg Intelligence chief commodity strategist Mike McGlone added in a Twitter post.

"Long risk assets may be fighting the Fed, among the riskiest — Bitcoin — faces headwinds as rate-hike expectations rise," he wrote.

An accompanying chart showed what