The Federal Reserve has announced that it is keeping interest rates steady, following its June 13-14 meeting, leaving the federal funds rate at its target range of 5.0 to 5.25%. With this move, the Federal Reserve snapped a string of ten consecutive meetings in which it raised interest rates in an effort to significantly reduce liquidity for financial markets and reduce high inflation.
The Fed’s decision came as inflation fell to 4% year-over-year in May after hitting the highest level in decades at over 9% in mid-2022. Although the Fed decided to take a breather this time around, projections suggest additional rate hikes could be on the way before the end of the year if conditions warrant. As usual, the crypto market is in the red following this news.
Bitcoin dropped by nearly 5% to $24,820 at one stage and now is recovering back to $25,019, but still significantly lower than its price before the Fed’s announcement. Ethereum also shared the same fate when it crashed to $1,630 and is currently trading around the $1,650 mark.
Many other major coins also recorded volatility between 3% and 8%, with red dominating the charts. The total crypto market cap has dropped more than 3.5% and is currently at $994.4 billion.
According to data from Coinglass, as much as $147 million in derivatives were liquidated in the last 24 hours, with more than 86% coming from longs. In which, the two largest coins in the market account for the majority of the liquidation value, taking place mostly on 3 exchanges Binance, OKX and Bybit.
