Crypto Markets Trim Losses, US Dollar Rises as Traders Digest Fed Statement

cryptonews.com:

Major cryptoassets including bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) trimmed some of their losses from the aftermath of yesterday’s US Federal Reserve statement, with prices rising during the European trading hours on Thursday. Meanwhile, the US dollar extended a rally from earlier, breaking through key resistance levels on the way up.

At 14:48 UTC, BTC stood at USD 37,029, down 3.2% for the past 24 hours and 11.3% for the week. At the same time, ETH traded at USD 2,504, down 5% for the day and 19% for the past 7 days.

BTC price over the last 14 days:

ETH price over the last 14 days:

Meanwhile, the US dollar index (DXY) continued to rise strongly today, after also seeing strong gains yesterday. The index, which measures the US dollar against a basket of currencies from other major economies, broke through recent highs from November last year, reaching its highest level since July 2020.

US dollar index (DXY):

The moves in crypto and forex markets today come after the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement was released yesterday, with the US central bank confirming that it is still committed to its plan to raise interest rates starting in March, as well as to begin work to reduce its massive balance sheet and get the currently high inflation under control.

“The balance sheet is substantially larger than it needs to be and there’s a substantial amount of shrinkage that needs to be done,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said during a press conference following the release of the FOMC statement.

And while yesterday’s statement was largely in line with the Fed's earlier ones, the speculations about whether the central bank might raise rates by 0.5% instead of 0.25% in March have remained. The speculations come mainly from analysts who