Markets
Cryptocurrency Markets Tumble as Powell Holds Interest Rates On Hold
Bitcoin fell 2%, Ethereum dropped 1.5%, while Solana and Polkadot posted slight gains.
Cryptocurrency markets fell on Monday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank is not yet ready to cut interest rates.
Bitcoin fell 2% to $61,850, while Ethereal slipped 1.5%. Meanwhile, Solana and Polkadot were unchanged on the day.
“Bitcoin dominance has fallen more than 5% in recent days, from 52.8% on June 25 to around 50% today. This decline typically encourages diversification in the market, prompting investors to explore other digital assets,” said Tristan Frizza, founder of Zeta Markets.
Among the top 100 digital assets by market cap, Solana memecoin BONK (BONK) and gaming blockchain Beam (BEAM) have seen the biggest gains over the past 24 hours, up 7% and 6%, respectively.
“We’ve made quite a bit of progress in getting inflation back to our target,” Powell told a central bankers’ forum in Europe. “We want to be more confident that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2% before we begin the process of reducing or easing policy.”
On July 1, Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) attracted inflows of $129.5 million, the highest level since June 7, according to Farside data.
Leading the charge was Fidelity’s FBTC, which received $65.0 million in inflows. Bitwise’s BITB attracted $41.4 million, and ARK’s ARKB earned $12.7 million. In total, Bitcoin ETFs have amassed $14.7 billion in assets since launching in January.
Spot Ether ETFs, once approved for trading in the United States, could attract net inflows of up to $5 billion within the first six months, according to a research report published Monday by cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.
U.S. stocks were flat. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%, while the S&P 500 jumped 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5%.