The good ol’ Fed cut interest rates by 0.25%, but made it clear it is in no rush to cut again. A sort of ambiguous message that rocked Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) around.
The FOMC lowered the federal funds rate to a 3.5%–3.75% range in a split vote. Two officials didn’t want any cut, and one wanted a bigger 0.5% move.
Markets first reacted positively to the cut, then pulled back once traders focused on the Fed’s wording: it said it will “carefully assess incoming data” before doing more, which is the kind of language it uses when it is close to pausing.
Read more: New ETF Aims to Capture Bitcoin’s After-Hours Gains Without Holding BTC
Even so, FedWatch places a 40% chance of another 0.25% cut by March, so the door is not closed. While this was playing out, Bitcoin swung between about US$93,200 (AU$140,479) and US$91,700 (AU$138,231) and ether between roughly US$3,340 (AU$5,034) and US$3,440 (AU$5,185), with other majors like SOL, XRP, and BNB also chopping around rather than trending.
At press time, Bitcoin is trading at US$90K (AU$135K), a 2.6% decrease in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
Source: TradingView.
The Fed also said it will restart buying Treasury bills, starting with US$40 billion (AU$60.3 billion) on Dec. 12. That kind of reserve-management buying is sometimes called “QE-lite” because it adds liquidity without being a full-scale quantitative easing program.
The market looks split, as some are saying the decision was less hawkish than feared, which explains the initial relief in bitcoin and stocks, but note that projections for only one rate cut next year are weaker than markets wanted and add uncertainty.
Others are more bullish and frame this cut as the start of easier money, arguing that cheaper capital tends to find its way into risk assets like crypto over time.
Read more: CryptoUK Joins The Digital Chamber in New Cross-Border Crypto Policy Alliance
The post Bitcoin and Ether Slip into Choppy Trading as Fed Signals Cautious Path After Rate Cut appeared first on Crypto News Australia.


