Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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BTC is down by nearly 3% and is trading below $65k per coin.
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The Federal Reserve held rates steady, citing further progress toward the 2% inflation target.
BTC Dips Below $65k Following Fed Meeting and Middle East Tensions
The cryptocurrency market continued its poor performance on Wednesday following two key events. BTC has lost roughly 3% of its value in the last 24 hours and is now trading below $65k per coin.
At press time, BTC is trading at $64,366 per coin. The poor performance came after the U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates at their current level on Wednesday. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) held the benchmark federal funds rate between 5.25% and 5.50%, which is in line with what most analysts predicted.
In its statement, the Fed said,
"Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace. Job gains have moderated, and the unemployment rate has increased but remains low. Inflation has eased over the past year but remains somewhat elevated. In recent months, there has been some further progress toward the Committee's 2 percent inflation objective."
The Fed added that it does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%.
The unease in the Middle East also contributed to Bitcoin’s poor performance. Iran's leadership reportedly ordered retaliatory attacks against Israel, increasing concerns about a broader conflict in the Middle East.
Altcoins suffered bigger losses, as most of them are down by 4% or more in the last 24 hours. Ether is down by 4% and is currently trading at $3,172 per coin. Solana is the worst performer amongst the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, losing 8% of its value. SOL’s heavy loss saw it slip up, allowing BNB to reclaim its fourth position in the market.
The total cryptocurrency market cap has now dropped to $2.31 trillion after losing 3.5% of its value in the last 24 hours.
