The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Jerome Powell announced yet another rate hike to bring inflation down to the 2% mark. This is the eighth consecutive time in less than a year that the Fed has increased the interest rates.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has raised interest rates by 25 basis points (bps), or a quarter of a percentage point, for the first time in 2023. According to Powell’s speech, the main goal of the rate hike is to tame inflation, currently sitting at 6.5%, while preventing a recession in the U.S.
“Restoring price stability will likely require maintaining a restrictive stance for some time.”
Fed chair Jerome Powell
Moreover, Andrew Weiner, the Vice President of the MEXC crypto exchange, does not expect any “interest rate cuts” in 2023. He believes that Wall Street doesn’t buy it.
In a comment to crypto. news Weiner said:
“US Stocks rally on Fed’s no-surprise rate hike, so does BTC. In other words, a 25 basis point rate hike is priced in.”
Andrew Weiner, MEXC Global VP
A few hours after the rate hike, the digital currency market showed bullish signs as the top 12 crypto assets, excluding stablecoins, turned green. Bitcoin (BTC) surged by 3.37% in the past 24 hours and is currently trading at $23,828 with a $459 billion market cap.
The top three gainers after the Fed meeting are avalanche (AVAX), polygon (MATIC) and binance coin (BNB), with 14.4%, 12.2% and 7.1% break-offs in the past 24 hours. Furthermore, the top gainer over the past week is MATIC — up by 22.3% in the last seven days and trading at $1.22 at the time of writing.
The VP of MEXC Global believes that a “soft landing is possible” while preventing entering into a recession. Weiner stated his optimism for the crypto markets in the first quarter of 2023:
“The focus will be on whether Powell acknowledges the recent softening in inflation and economic activity, bolstering markets’ hopes for an early pivot toward easing.”
Andrew Weiner, MEXC Global VP
It’s important to note that the global crypto market cap has risen from roughly $1.03 trillion at the time of the Fed statement to $1.08 trillion at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Main content of the article:
The US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates for the eighth consecutive time in an effort to bring inflation down to the 2% mark. Wall Street does not expect any rate cuts in 2023, and the crypto market reacted positively to the news. Bitcoin (BTC) surged by 3.37% in the past 24 hours, and the top three gainers after the Fed meeting are Avalanche (AVAX), Polygon (MATIC) and Binance Coin (BNB). The global crypto market cap has also risen from $1.03 trillion to $1.08 trillion. VP of MEXC Global, Andrew Weiner, is optimistic for the crypto markets in the first quarter of 2023, expecting a soft landing to prevent entering into a recession.
