Markets
Cryptocurrency Markets Rebound as Fed Chair Warns of Prolonged High Interest Rates
Digital assets continue to recover after sharp weekend decline.
Cryptocurrency markets continued to climb Wednesday morning after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that maintaining high interest rates for an extended period could pose risks to the U.S. economy.
“Reducing policy restrictions too late or too little could unduly weaken economic activity and employment,” Powell said. said In its semiannual policy update, the Fed said: “More positive data would strengthen our confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent.”
Powell’s remarks suggest that the U.S. Federal Reserve may soon consider cutting interest rates if current economic trends continue.
The cryptocurrency market reacted favorably, with the combined market capitalization of digital assets increasing by 1% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
Bitcoin (BTC) rose 2% to trade above $58,000, while Ethereum (ETH) climbed 1% to break above $3,100.
Stacks (STX) was the best performing cryptocurrency among the top 100 by market cap with a daily gain of 9%, followed by Sei (SEI) with 7.5% and Floki (FLOKI) with 7.1%.
LayerZero’s ZRO token has been on a steady rise over the past two weeks, posting a bi-weekly gain of 65% to trade within 3% of its all-time high of $4.57. Celestia token (TIA) is also the top-100 performer over the past seven days with a 25% gain.
Peas (POINT) also gained 0.5% in 24 hours to hold above $6, while Solana (GROUND) rebounded 1.7% and last changed hands at $139.5.
Asset Issuers File for Solana ETF
Solana’s price rise follows Van Eck and 21Shares filed applications with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for Solana cash exchange-traded funds (ETFs) two weeks ago.
On July 8, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) filed 19b-4 filings with the SEC seeking approval to list the products. The SEC will have 240 days to issue a verdict on the potential funds once the regulator formally acknowledges the filings.
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, said the fate of these ETFs could depend on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in November.
“It looks like the Solana ETFs will have a final deadline in mid-March 2025,” he said. tweeted. “Until then, the most imp[ortant] date is in November. If Biden wins, these [dead on arrival]If Trump wins, everything [is] Poss[ible].”
Traditional markets
U.S. stock futures were relatively flat on Wednesday. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.02%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures gained 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively.
Investors are awaiting the release of the consumer price index for June on Thursday, followed by the producer price index on Friday.