Bitcoin slips to $80,100 as Fed holds rates and two officials seek hike
Bitcoin fell to about $80,100 after the Fed held rates at 3.75%-4.00% in a 10-2 vote, with two dissenters seeking a hike and tech earnings weighing on risk.
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Hana Kimura
10/29/20262 min read
Bitcoin fell to about $80,100 on Thursday, Oct. 29, after the US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and two policymakers voted for an increase, according to CoinDesk. The largest cryptocurrency briefly climbed back above $81,000 after Wednesday's decision before dropping as low as $79,600.
The Federal Open Market Committee kept its target range at 3.75% to 4.00% in a 10-2 vote. Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack dissented in favour of a quarter-point hike. The statement upgraded its description of economic activity to a "strong pace" and repeated that inflation remains elevated. The Fed had raised rates by a quarter point at its September meeting.
Chair Kevin Warsh declined to commit to a December move, saying incoming data would leave the committee better placed to decide. He said the economy was not running too hot. After the meeting, CME FedWatch priced an 85% chance of a December hike, up from 78.3% the day before, according to figures cited by HackerNoon. The next meeting is set for Dec. 8-9.
Tech earnings add pressure
The crypto pullback coincided with weakness in technology shares. Nasdaq-100 futures fell 1.1% after Alphabet missed earnings expectations, and Samsung Electronics dropped 4% despite record quarterly profit, CoinDesk reported. Ether lost 1.7% and the CoinDesk Memecoin Index fell 3.4%. Brave New Coin, citing CoinPaprika, put XRP down about 3% at $1.29 and total crypto market capitalisation at roughly $2.80 trillion.
Derivatives showed only limited stress. Futures liquidations rose 84% to $337.4 million, split almost evenly between longs and shorts, while open interest dipped 1.9%. Funding rates for bitcoin and ether stayed positive but eased. Several AI-linked tokens underperformed, with NEAR down 7.8% and JASMY down 10%.
Spot bitcoin ETFs kept attracting money, with $137 million of inflows on Wednesday, a third straight day, CoinDesk said. Traders were also waiting for the September PCE inflation report, the Fed's preferred price gauge, due later on Thursday. The relative calm did not last: within a day, the Binance hack sent bitcoin down to $76,400.
Source: CoinDesk, Brave New Coin, HackerNoon