Bitcoin held its $16,000 ground as traders anticipated the expected release at 2 p.m. ET (19:00 UTC) of minutes from the Federal Reserve's last monetary-policy meeting.

The minutes might hold clues on the pace of future interest rates, a key factor in prices for risky assets from stocks to cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin (BTC) was trading as high as $16,634 early Wednesday but had settled back to $16,300 as of press time, up 1.3% in the past 24 hours.

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has recovered somewhat since hitting a two-year low of $15,480 on Monday amid jitters over the future of the crypto financial firm Genesis.

(by Jocelyn Yang)