Inflation May Be Tough to Tame Under Bitcoin-Friendly Trump, Says Fed

Bitcoin and other major crypto assets didn't move substantially Wednesday after the Federal Reserve released the minutes for its December meeting. However, the central bank hinted that inflation might be stickier than expected with incoming President-elect Donald Trump.

The minutes released Wednesday by America's central bank read that "the effects of potential changes in trade and immigration policy" could lead to inflation staying higher than the 2% target.

And the institution's officials said they would be more careful about lowering borrowing costs over 2025.

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The price of the biggest coin now stands at about $93,800, according to CoinGecko. It's down by more than 3% over the last 24 hours, but much of that decline happened ahead of the release of the Fed minutes.

Dogecoin, the seventh biggest cryptocurrency, is down more than 4% over a 24-hour period and trading for $0.337, while major coins Ethereum and Solana are currently down 4% and 5%, respectively.

U.S. equities also stood largely still. Traders now await more information on Friday when fresh jobs data is set to drop.

Despite President-elect Trump claiming that he will help the average American's wallet, the future Commander-in-Chief is a big fan of trade tariffs, which some economists have hinted could cause more inflation. However, the Washington Post reported this week that his team is considering narrower tariffs than originally planned—a notion that Trump himself denied after the fact.

Bitcoin and riskier assets like tech stocks have largely benefited from low interest rates. With borrowing costs low, investors are more likely to put their money in assets that tend to experience bigger price swings.

America’s central bank aggressively hiked interest rates in 2022 in a bid to tame inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic. So when the Fed finally slashed rates in September, it gave Bitcoin a boost.

In December, Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of over $108,000 per coin. Alongside equities, Bitcoin has surged off the back of Trump's November election victory, as the incoming president cast himself as a Bitcoin-friendly leader who would help the digital asset industry as well as deregulate Wall Street.

Edited by Andrew Hayward