Crypto Markets Tank $100B Amid Hawkish Fed Projections

Total market capitalization has declined by almost $100 billion in less than 24 hours before and after the Federal Reserve’s meeting on Wednesday. The metric is now at around $2.52 trillion after falling from just below a six-week high of $2.61 trillion on Wednesday.

Over the past 24 hours, around 136,000 traders were wrecked, with total liquidations coming in at $452 million. The majority, or around 85% of them, were leveraged long positions in Bitcoin.

The big slump has sent markets back towards the middle of their six-week range-bound channel, wiping out most of the gains from the recent rally.

Hawkish Fed Rattles Traders

The dump began before the meeting but continued after Fed chair Jerome Powell’s comments that there may only be one rate cut this year. The US central bank kept rates the same at 3.5% to 3.75% in a widely expected move yesterday.

Fed policymakers maintained their forecast for an additional rate cut this year, but Powell suggested that the central bank remains concerned about stubbornly elevated inflation even before the conflict’s impact on fuel prices, reported the Associated Press.

Rate decisions tend to “amplify the existing regime,” they added, explaining that the current regime is “transitioning toward low risk, but it is not fully confirmed yet.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for “too slow” Powell to reduce rates, but his own actions have had the opposite effect. Trump’s tariffs and now the war in Iran have caused prices to increase, which is likely to result in inflation figures going back up.

Inflation is one of the two Fed mandates for policy decisions on rates; the other is the labor market.

Crypto Market Outlook

Bitcoin is down 4.3% on the day, dropping below $71,000 on Wednesday, where it currently struggles.

Ether prices dumped 5.6% and fell below $2,200 while struggling to reclaim that level. Meanwhile, the altcoins were bleeding heavily with larger losses for Dogecoin, Cardano, Chainlink, and Zcash.

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