Federal Reserve Hikes Interest Rates with a 75-Bp Increase, Bitcoin Remains Bearish

blockchain.news:

The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced a 0.75 percentage point interest rate increase as part of efforts to clamp down rising inflation without creating a recession.

The latest interest rate rise by the Fed follows a similar hike in June – aggressive hikes that have so far put pressure on markets, including cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). This is the fourth time the central bank has increased interest rates this year.

The price of Bitcoin increased 3.6% in the hour after Fed Chair Powell announced another big interest-rate raise.

Although crypto prices rose slightly following the Fed’s announcement, the markets are expected to remain volatile and bearish in the next few weeks.

Bitcoin was trading around $22,784.10 as of Thursday morning, 01:24 am EAT (East Africa Time), up 8.04% in the last 24 hours.

Aggressive rate hikes normally have negative impacts on crypto prices, and the markets are likely to continue to be bearish in the short term.

Industry leaders shared polarised opinions regarding the crypto market outlook, Chris Terry, BPSAA Board Member and VP of Enterprise Solutions at SmartFi, commented: 

“We anticipate that Bitcoin will continue to trade in this tight range of $20,000 plus or minus 10-15%. None of this should be a surprise. We could be in this stalled market for weeks and weeks. Boring.”

Meanwhile, Damian Scavo, CEO at algorithmic trading platform Streetbeat, said:

“The crypto economy also moves up, overperforming the stocks, thanks to the higher volatility. It's very interesting also to see how crypto is starting to correlate with the <dfn data-info=«The stock market is where you can buy, sell, and trade stocks any business day. It» s also called a stock exchange.>stock market and in