The crypto markets fell after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Thursday that the central bank is not “in a hurry” to cut interest rates.
Powell, in a recent address, stated that the U.S. Federal Reserve does not need to be “in a hurry to lower rates.” The Fed decreased its benchmark borrowing cost by a quarter percentage point last week, and traders expect it to cut rates similarly in December.
Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said that the current economy has not sent any signals that require us to rush to cut interest rates. The current strong momentum of the economy allows us to make decisions more carefully. Powell reiterated that inflation may continue to fall.…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) November 15, 2024
“The economy is not sending any signals that we need to be in a hurry to lower rates,” Powell said in prepared remarks. “The strength we are currently seeing in the economy gives us the ability to approach our decisions carefully.”
The Fed’s latest views come after inflation and employment figures were announced earlier Thursday. The producer price index grew by 0.2% in October, matching Dow Jones experts’ predictions. Initial unemployment claims for the week ending Nov. 9 totaled 217,000, a 4,000 decrease from the previous week, indicating that the economy remains strong.
Crypto market price action
Powell’s comments impacted market sentiment, decreasing expectations for a December rate cut.
After reaching all-time highs of $93,465 on Wednesday, Bitcoin’s price fell on Thursday, dragging other cryptocurrencies with it and liquidating many long bets in the process.
Although Bitcoin is showing signs of recovery, the price still remains down 1.84% in the last 24 hours to $89,000, while still up 17% on a weekly basis.
Ethereum, Solana, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu all fell between 3% and 7% in the last 24 hours. Dogwifhat (WIF), Neiro and Mew reported even larger losses of 12% to 14%.
Meanwhile, few cryptocurrencies have returned to the green, but several cryptocurrencies were still trading in the red at press time. Hedera (HBAR) was up nearly 13%, while Cronos, Stellar, Cardano, Near and BRETT were up 3% to 15%.
XRP also outperformed the top 10, rising 15% in the past 24 hours to $0.8122. CoinGlass data shows that in the last 24 hours, $504 million in positions have been liquidated across all cryptocurrencies. Of that total, $358 million were long positions.
