Bitcoin, ether slide after a hawkish Fed, even as Trump's signed Iran deal lifts stocks
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- Bitcoin traded around $63,900, down 3% over 24 hours but up 2% on the week, per CoinDesk data.
- Ether fell 3.4% to $1,733, with XRP dropping 3.9% to $1.17, solana losing 3.6% to $71, and Hyperliquid's HYPE leading losses at -7.2% to $69 (still up 28% over seven days).
- The Federal Reserve held rates at 3.5%-3.75% in Chair Kevin Warsh's first meeting but signaled higher-for-longer borrowing costs, with updated projections showing higher inflation and slower rate cuts.
- President Trump signed an interim deal to end the war with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, lifting S&P 500 futures as much as 0.9% and Nasdaq futures 1.5% — but crypto didn't catch that bid.
- Brent crude fell toward $78 a barrel as the Iran deal eased supply-risk concerns.
- Hashdex's Gerry O'Shea said bitcoin is likely to stay rangebound between $60,000 and $70,000 absent a catalyst like the CLARITY Act signing or further US-Iran de-escalation.
- May crypto exchange volumes fell 3.45% to $4.41T — the lowest since September 2024 — while RWA perpetual futures volumes rose 10.4% to a new all-time high.
Why it matters: The Fed's hawkish turn under Chair Kevin Warsh tightens financial conditions, draining liquidity from risk assets like crypto — and unlike stocks, Bitcoin didn't catch the bid from Trump's Iran deal. For digital-asset traders, that split means macro liquidity, not geopolitics, is the dominant price driver until rate-cut expectations reset or the CLARITY Act passes.
