Bitcoin Bounces as Markets Brace for the Fed’s Next Move — SkimNews
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- Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate 25bps to 3.75%-4% on a unanimous 12-0 vote Wednesday, its first hike since July 2023, after traders had priced in a 93% probability via CME's FedWatch tool.
- Bitcoin briefly touched $76,499 post-announcement before settling near $76,300, roughly flat on the day, as the broader crypto market cap held at $2.63 trillion.
- Zcash surged as much as 23% to roughly $1,425 — a multi-year high — after Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang disclosed his firm's ZEC position on X and called the token "a private complement to Bitcoin"; ZEC is up roughly 160% over the past month and nearly 3,000% over 365 days.
- Wall Street reacted more sharply than crypto: the Dow sank about 1.2% and the S&P 500 slid 0.4-0.5% on Wednesday, while the 10-year Treasury yield topped 5% earlier in the week and oil pushed above $100 amid the Israel-Iran conflict.
- Roughly $373 million in crypto liquidations hit the market over 24 hours, with short positions accounting for the larger share as prices ground higher into the rate decision.
- XRP lagged at $1.29, up 2% on the day but still down more than 6% for the week after the crypto Clarity Act failed its Senate cloture vote days earlier.
- The Fed's median projection puts the federal funds rate at 4.1% by the end of 2026, leaving room for one more quarter-point move; its next meeting is scheduled for October 27-28.
Why it matters: The Fed's unanimous 25bps hike was broadly priced in, so crypto stayed flat near $76,300 while equities absorbed the hit harder — Dow -1.2%, S&P 500 down 0.4-0.5%. Zcash's 23% surge on a single Paradigm disclosure, combined with its 160% monthly and roughly 3,000% yearly gain, points to capital rotating into privacy tokens as the Crypto Fear & Greed Index slipped from "extreme greed" to neutral (50) over three weeks.
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