Fed Hints At Pause After Another 25bps Hike

Markets remained little changed after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates for the 10th straight time, nudging the benchmark US rate up by another 0.25%.

While equities turned lower after the decision, with the S&P 500 closing down 0.7%, crypto markets are trading sideways. Bitcoin is flat, and Ether is up less than a percentage point.

Today’s hike could be the last in this series if economic conditions worsen, as the central bank said that any further increases would be data-dependent – a significant departure from its March statement, which “anticipate[d] that some additional policy firming may be appropriate.”

Earlier in the day, a report from payroll-processing firm ADP showed that the private sector added 296,000 jobs in April, a nine-month high. This indicates that the US jobs market remains resilient in the face of tightening credit conditions.

At a press conference following the decision, Fed chair Jerome Powell called the revised language a “meaningful change.”

Investors are taking note. Fed funds futures already indicate a 90% probability of rates remaining unchanged in June, and predict rate cuts by the end of the year.

A more accommodative stance by the US central bank would likely be a tailwind for crypto, which tends to thrive along with other risk assets like stocks when there is ample liquidity.

Top Gainers

Decentralized exchange Curve’s CRV token is up nearly 7% in the past 24 hours after the project deployed a smart contract related to its upcoming crvUSD stablecoin. Curve is DeFi’s fourth-largest protocol, with $5B in total value locked.

Rocket Pool (RPL), the second-largest liquid staking protocol, is up over 5%.

Biggest Losers

Among the top 100 digital assets by market capitalization, decentralized exchange Pancakeswap and liquid staking leader Lido have fallen around 9% over the past week.

Radix, a layer 1 blockchain, is the worst performer with a 20% drop, according to Coingecko.