Author of the news: Crypto Emergency
The US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged at yesterday's meeting, however, subsequent comments from Jerome Powell triggered a powerful wave of sell-offs in the cryptocurrency and commodity markets. Powell emphasized that the regulator would act extremely cautiously and would not rush to lower rates while inflationary pressure remains. He also confirmed that the possibility of raising rates was discussed at the last meeting.
This approach leaves both scenarios open — both rate cuts and increases — which has increased uncertainty in the markets. Additionally, the Fed has indicated plans for one rate cut in 2026 and 2027.
The crypto market lost more than $100 billion in a day.
The cautious rhetoric of the Fed instantly reflected on cryptocurrencies. The market capitalization of Bitcoin and leading altcoins decreased by more than $100 billion over the last 24 hours. The price of BTC fell below $70,000, while just the day before the asset was above $76,000.
Altcoins also came under pressure: Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and XRP lost an average of 5–6%.
According to Coinglass, positions worth $581 million were liquidated in a day, of which $491.2 million were long positions and $89.7 million were short positions.
Gold and silver are also in the red zone.
The decline affected not only cryptocurrencies. The spot price of gold fell below $4700 per ounce, losing about 2% in a day and marking a low not seen since February 6. Silver dropped even more: its price fell below $70, and the intraday decline exceeded 7%.