Bitcoin, Ethereum Up Slightly as Fed Looks to ‘Ease Policy’ in September

By Mat Di Salvo

Bitcoin’s price is up following the Wednesday release of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s minutes from its July meeting, which suggests that an interest rate cut will come in September. Market watchers and investors are widely expecting the move.

The price of the biggest digital coin stands at $60,500 as of writing, per CoinGecko, after having jumped 2% in 24 hours. Ethereum, the second-biggest asset, is up marginally, too, trading hands for $2,640—a 1.8% rise.

The minutes showed that most of the officials at the meeting last month agreed that it would be time to cut interest rates depending on the next round of economic data.

“The vast majority observed that, if the data continued to come in about as expected, it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting,” it read. 

All eyes will be on the central bank’s chair Jerome Powell on Friday, who’s due to speak at the Jackson Hole Monetary Policy Symposium in Wyoming and reveal more about a timeframe for cuts.

The Fed started aggressively raising rates in 2022 in a bid to tame 40-year high inflation following the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The tightening negatively hit Both stocks and crypto at first, as investors tend to avoid such assets—dubbed “on-risk”—when borrowing is expensive. 

But since last year, such assets have done well, particularly as the booming world of Artificial Intelligence and the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs has led to a flurry of investment into U.S. equities and crypto. 

The central bank has since been working to get inflation down to 2%. Wednesday’s minutes showed that it is closer to reaching that target. 

“Participants observed that inflation had eased over the past year but remained elevated and that, in recent months, there had been some further progress toward the Committee’s 2 percent inflation objective,” the minutes read.

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