-- Bitcoin price fell on Thursday, remaining pinned below key support levels as fears of high U.S. interest rates remained in play after a Federal Reserve meeting, with the token now entering a bear market from its March record highs.

fell 4.6% in the past 24 hours to $57,492.3 by 01:13 ET (05:13 GMT). The token slipped below the coveted $60,000 support this week, and was now down about 22% from its record high of $73,740, which it hit in early-March.

Bitcoin price in bear market amid few positive catalysts

A price drop of 20% from a recent peak signals that an asset is in bear market territory, which was now the case for Bitcoin.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency struggled to make any price headway after hitting a record high in March, and had largely moved within a $60k to $70k trading range for over a month.

But Bitcoin broke below the trading range this week amid a storm of negative factors, with the biggest weight being growing conviction that U.S. interest rates will remain high for longer. This notion saw the token take little advantage of an overnight drop in the , as the Federal Reserve said it had no plans to hike interest rates further.

But the central bank also flagged little intent to begin cutting rates, especially in the face of sticky inflation.

Higher-for-longer rates bode poorly for assets such as Bitcoin, which usually thrive in a low-rate, high-liquidity environment that favors speculative trading. 

Fears of high rates also sapped enthusiasm over spot exchange-traded funds (ETFS), which were launched in U.S. markets earlier this week. Bitcoin investment products were slapped with a string of major outflows for three straight weeks. 

The launch of spot-traded ETFs in Hong Kong also provided little cheer to crypto markets, as the products saw limited inflows in their debut sessions.

Crypto price today: ETH tracks BTC losses, altcoins positive 

Broader crypto prices saw some positive trends, but still remained relatively subdued amid few positive catalysts for the industry. 

World no.2 token fell 3%, tracking declines in its bigger peer.

rose 3%, while added 1.6%. But both tokens remained squarely within a trading range established over the past month.