Cryptocurrencies traded close to the flatline as markets digested the full import of the Fed Chair Jerome Powell's commentary at the Jackson Hole economic symposium on Friday.
Jerome Powell, in his speech on Friday reiterated the Fed's focus on bringing inflation to the level of 2 percent but assured to proceed carefully. The hints triggered fears of interest rates remaining higher for longer, impacting the opportunity cost of holding non-interest yielding cryptocurrencies.
Amidst the Fed Chair's hawkish commentary, expectations of another quarter point rate hike in September as revealed by the CME FedWatch tool increased to 19.5 percent, from 14 percent a week earlier. Similar rate hike expectations for the November review increased to 49.4 percent, from 38 percent a week earlier.
Overall crypto market capitalization is currently steady at $1.05 trillion.
Bitcoin is currently changing hands at $26,121.28, registering an overnight gain of 0.22 percent. The leading cryptocurrency has added a quarter percent over the past week. Year-to-date gains however exceed 57 percent.
Ethereum too has edged 0.11 percent overnight to trade at $1,651.69. Losses are 1.2 percent over the past week. The leading alternate coin has gained more than 37 percent in 2023.
Bitcoin dominates 48.38 percent of the overall crypto market followed by Ethereum which accounts for 18.91 percent.
Among the top 10 cryptocurrencies XRP topped losses with a decline of 1.5 percent. BNB topped gains with an uptick of 0.33 percent.
77th ranked Curve DAO Token (CRV) surged 5.4 percent. 81st ranked Conflux (CFX), 32nd ranked Filecoin (FIL) and 35th ranked Cronos (CRO) have all added more than 3 percent. 82nd ranked Sui (SUI) is the greatest laggard among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, shedding more than 6 percent overnight. 99th ranked Bone ShibaSwap (BONE) declined 4.3 percent followed by 30th ranked Hedera (HBAR) that dropped 3.1 percent.
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May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.