The Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate at 3.5%–3.75% on Wednesday and crypto barely moved, with Bitcoin dipping around 1% to $63,890 after the decision. Three regional Fed presidents dissented in favour of an immediate quarter-point hike, while gold and silver proxies outperformed. With no new dot plot until September, the hike question moved down the calendar.
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at 3.5%–3.75% on Wednesday, meeting near-universal market expectations. Bitcoin dipped around 1% to $63,890 following the announcement. Ethereum similarly fell by about 1%, trading just above $1,900.
Measured over a longer window the move shrinks further. Bitcoin traded at about $64,129 after the announcement, up only 0.3% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Total cryptocurrency market capitalization increased just 0.4% to approximately $2.27 trillion, which suggests the hold had largely been reflected in crypto valuations before the announcement.
Traders de-risked before the vote
Investors apparently de-risked from more volatile assets like Bitcoin ahead of the event, with the asset slumping by $3,000 in the previous session. It then rebounded to $64,500, where it was rejected and slipped to under $63,800 before the meeting. Futures markets and prediction platforms had assigned a 30%-38% probability to a hike.
The meeting was described as the most unpredictable since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in March 2020. All meetings since then had carried 99% agreement about the outcome ahead of their conclusion.
Three dissents point at September
Policymakers voted 9–3 for the hold. Beth Hammack of Cleveland, Neel Kashkari of Minneapolis and Lorie Logan of Dallas voted in favour of an immediate 25-basis-point hike, the most hawkish bloc of dissents of Chair Kevin Warsh's tenure.
In its statement, the Fed described economic activity as "expanding at a solid pace" but acknowledged that inflation remained above its 2% target. Wednesday's decision also came without a Summary of Economic Projections, the quarterly dot plot that shows where each Fed member expects rates to land. The widely expected hold removed the immediate risk of a surprise hike, however the three dissents and persistent inflation mean uncertainty has shifted toward the September meeting rather than disappearing.
Gold gains while miners slide
Safe-haven assets outperformed cryptocurrencies during the session. SPDR Gold Shares rose 1.25%, while the iShares Silver Trust gained 2.52% shortly after the Fed announcement.
Crypto-linked equities diverged. Strategy gained approximately 2.1%, while Coinbase fell about 1% and Robinhood declined 1.7%. Miners fared worse: MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms and CleanSpark each dropped roughly 6% on the day, though those declines had started before the Fed announcement.
Nearly half of FOMC members signaled at the June meeting they would support a rate hike before year-end. The next FOMC decision is September 16, 2026, when the committee will publish updated economic projections and a new dot plot.
Sources: Decrypt, crypto.news, CryptoPotato
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