A mildly positive sentiment prevails in the cryptocurrency markets ahead of the release of the FOMC minutes as well as earnings update from AI giant NVIDIA. President Trump's comments about a quick end to the Middle East war, the decline in crude oil prices, Wall Street futures trading in the green, the dollar's flat moves as well as easing sovereign bond yields lifted market sentiment. Overall cryptocurrency market capitalization has edged up around half a percent in the past 24 hours. Market leader Bitcoin traded between $77,587 and $76,082.
The minutes of the Federal Open Markets Committee due to be released on Wednesday assumes significance as it would indicate the extent of hawkish overtones in the Committee's deliberations. While voting for the Fed's interest rate decision, markets were taken aback by the dissent from three members who were not in favour of communicating a bias toward easing in the FOMC statement. The assessment of the Fed's direction also assumes importance amidst a sharp jump in crude oil prices, a spike in inflation as well as a resultant jump in rate hike expectations from the Federal Reserve.
According to the CME FedWatch tool, expectations of interest rates remaining at the current level by the end of 2026 is 43 percent versus 54 percent a month earlier. At the same time, expectations of quarter percent rate hike by the year end are 40 percent versus nil a month earlier. Expectations of a quarter percent rate cut slipped to 1 percent from 36 percent a month earlier. The wide shift in interest rate expectations is expected to sway crypto market sentiment significantly.
Crypto markets also digested the latest executive order signed by President Trump that aims to streamline regulations and promote financial innovation and collaboration between financial technology firms, federally regulated financial institutions, and Federal financial regulators. The regulatory overhaul is intended to allow the integration of digital assets and other novel financial technology into traditional financial services and payment systems.
Amidst the positive sentiment, CoinMarketCap's Fear and Greed Index has edged up to 40 in the neutral zone from 39 in the fear zone a day earlier.
Overall crypto market capitalization has increased 0.06 percent in the past 24 hours to $2.57 trillion. The 24-hour trading volume has however decreased 24 percent to $70 billion. Only 32 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies are trading with overnight gains of more than a percent whereas 14 are trading with overnight losses of more than a percent.
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency is trading 0.74 percent higher at $77,364.20. The current price is around 39 percent below the all-time high of $126,198.07 recorded on October 7, 2025. The original cryptocurrency has lost 4 percent in the past week and 12.8 percent on a year-to-date basis. Bitcoin Spot ETF products in the U.S. witnessed net outflows of $331 million on Tuesday versus $649 million on Monday. iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) topped with massive outflows of $326 million.
Bitcoin has improved to the 11th rank in the global ranking of all assets as per market capitalization published by companiesmarketcap.com and is now positioned between Saudi Aramco ranked 10th and Meta Platforms ranked 12th in the list.
Ethereum (ETH) added 0.66 percent overnight as it traded at $2,126.93. The leading alternate coin is trading 57 percent below the all-time-high of $4,953.73 recorded on August 25, 2025.
Ethereum Spot ETF products in the U.S. witnessed net outflows of $62 million on Tuesday versus $86 million on Monday. iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) topped with net outflows of $59 million.
Ethereum is continuing in the 69th position in the global ranking of all assets as per market capitalization published by companiesmarketcap.com.
4th ranked BNB (BNB) gained 0.54 percent overnight resulting in price increasing to $642.61. BNB is trading 53 percent below the all-time high of $1,370.55 touched on October 13, 2025.
5th ranked XRP (XRP), a payments-focused cryptocurrency lost quarter percent overnight and is currently trading at $1.36, around 64 percent below the all-time high of $3.84 touched on January 4, 2018.
The price of 7th ranked Solana (SOL) gained 0.33 percent overnight to $84.61. SOL's current price is around 71 percent below its all-time-high of $294.33 recorded on January 19, 2025.
Solana ETF products in the U.S. witnessed net inflows of $4 million on Tuesday versus $2 million on Monday. Fidelity Solana Fund (FSOL) topped with inflows of $3 million.
TRON (TRX) ranked 8th overall rallied 0.86 percent overnight and is currently changing hands at $0.3579. The trading price is 19 percent below the cryptocurrency's all-time high of $0.4407 recorded on December 4, 2024.
Memecoin Dogecoin (DOGE) ranked 9th overall slipped 0.17 percent overnight and is currently trading at $0.1037. DOGE is trading 86 percent below the peak price of $0.7376 recorded on May 8, 2021.
10th ranked Hyperliquid (HYPE) jumped 4 percent in the past 24 hours. HYPE is trading at $49.66, around 16 percent below the all-time high of $59.39 recorded on September 18, 2025. HYPE has gained 26 percent in the past week and 105 percent on a year-to-date basis.
Hyperliquid ETF products in the U.S. witnessed net inflows of $11 million on Tuesday versus $4 million on Monday. Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP) and 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF (THYP), both witnessed inflows of more than $5 million each.
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May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.