Bitcoin (BTC) saw major volatility on March 22 as the United States Federal Reserve hinted that it could halt rate hikes.
Powell on Tariffs: “‘May’ and ‘some’ instead of ‘ongoing’”
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed sharp moves both up and down for BTC/USD as the Fed rose by an expected 25 basis points.
At a news conference, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell appeared to be downplaying the ongoing US banking crisis and its aftermath, hinting that today’s rate hike could be the last.
In prepared remarks, Powell said the Fed believes “events in the banking system over the past two weeks are likely to lead to tighter credit conditions for households and businesses, which in turn would affect economic outcomes.”
“It is too early to determine the magnitude of these effects, and therefore too early to say how monetary policy should respond,” he said.
“As a result, we are no longer saying that we expect continued interest rate hikes will be appropriate to suppress inflation. Instead, we now expect that some additional policy strengthening may be appropriate.”
BTC/USD initially saw local lows of $27,867 on Bitstamp around the events before returning to trade above $28,000, but continued to drop at the time of writing as markets continued to digest Powell’s responses to press inquiries.
On rate hikes in particular, he said the terms “maybe” and “some” rather than “ongoing” would be best to describe future policy.
Nevertheless, in response, some commentators described Powell’s Fed as “hawkish” in prioritizing inflation over the banking crisis by continuing to ramble.
“The Fed has so far shown its commitment to higher rates for longer + inflation as enemy #1,” Tedtalksmacro wrote as part of Twitter follow-up.
The BTC price is around
Bitcoin thus failed to deliver the trip to $30,000 that some had hoped for ahead of the rate hike decision.
Related: Will the Fed Stop Rate Hikes? 5 things you need to know in Bitcoin this week
“Shorts liquidated, then longs liquidated. Back to the same price as an hour ago,” summarized analyst Matthew Hyland.
Data from monitoring source Coinglass estimates total crypto liquidations for the day at $36 million and $78 million for shorts and longs, respectively.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
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