Proactive Investors - There was no upside surprise for bitcoin (BTC) following the US Federal Reserve’s widely expected pause on further interest rate hikes.
On the contrary, the world’s largest cryptocurrency fell 0.3% against the US dollar, considerably less dramatic than the Nasdaq, which dove more than one percentage point.
Analysts are calling the Fed’s call a hawkish hold, with the Fed indicating that at least one more rate hike is expected later in 2023.
Fed chair Jerome Powell said he needs to see “convincing evidence” of genuine deflation before taking further hikes off the table completely.
The BTC/USDT pair closed the Wednesday session at $27,125, falling closer to a flat $27,000 this morning.
It still remains a solid September for bitcoin, having gained more than 4% during what is historically the worst month on record for crypto as a whole.
Bitcoin is down 1.7% over six weeks – Source: tradingview.com
Ethereum (ETH) felt the hawkish pause more than bitcoin, dipping 1.3% on Wednesday and further today. At the time of writing, the ETH/USDT pair was swapping for $1,613.
Unlike bitcoin, ether has not had a strong September, with month-to-date performance in the red by half a percentage point.
On a weekly basis, bitcoin is 2.9% higher against the US dollar compared to ether’s 0.1%.
Checking in on the wider altcoin space, Toncoin (TON) remains by far the strongest among the top-20 set, with the Telegram-linked Layer-1 blockchain adding nearly 25% week on week.
Binance’s BNB token and Cardano (ADA) are both around 1% higher, while Ripple (XRP) and Solana (SOL) have both made gains in the high single digits.
Global cryptocurrency fell 0.3% to $1.07 trillion overnight, with bitcoin dominance a stable 50.27%.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index has shown a marked improvement in September. Gauging bitcoin's volatility and market momentum specifically, the index has flipped into neutral after a prolonged period in the fear category.
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