Crypto, Stocks, PMs Sink Lower — All Eyes on the Fed’s Next Rate Hike as Ethereum’s Merge Hype Wavers

Cryptocurrency Oct 17, 2022 0 229 Add to Reading List

The crypto economy has slipped under the $1 trillion range once again after briefly rising to a high of $1.16 trillion on September 14. Signs show that Ethereum’s Merge hype has seemingly left the building and market participants are now waiting for the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting next week. Presently, the crypto economy is down 3% lower over the last day and is currently valued at $965 billion.

Major Stocks, Crypto Markets, Precious Metals, and Real Estate Drops Further — 80% of Investors Expect an Aggressive Fed Rate Hike

The Merge is over and the hype leading up to the transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) is now gone. Ethereum (ETH) and the rest of the crypto economy saw decent gains leading up to The Merge, but following the change, the entire crypto market is down more than 3% during the past 24 hours.

Currently, statistics show the market valuation of all the crypto tokens in existence is $965.42 billion. The day prior, before The Merge, the crypto economy was valued at $1.16 trillion. While the entire crypto economy slid 3% lower, bitcoin (BTC) shed 2.6% and ethereum (ETH) lost more than 7% against the U.S. dollar. At the time of writing, there’s $87.39 billion in 24-hour global trade volume and tether (USDT) commands $62.31 billion of today’s volume.

BTC slipped under the $20K per unit zone to $19,794 per bitcoin, while ethereum (ETH) slipped to $1,495 per coin. Amid the crypto economy rout, Wall Street is suffering as well as all four major indexes are down on Thursday afternoon. Precious Metals (PMs) like gold shed 1.70% during the past day, and silver is down 2.09% against the U.S. dollar. Investors are worried about the upcoming U.S. Federal Reserve rate hike following the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishing August’s consumer price index (CPI) report.

Fed chair Jerome Powell (pictured above) and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) are expected to raise the benchmark bank rate by 75bps next week.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is expected to convene on September 20-21. Data from CME Group indicates that 80% of investors expect the Fed to hike the rate by 75 basis points next week. Jobless claims in the U.S. slid by 5,000 to 213,000 this week, which was above market predictions. The bond market is erratic as well, as Treasury yields jumped higher across the board. The two-year Treasury note’s yield was up to 3.85% rising roughly six basis points (bps) on Thursday.

Meanwhile, not many assets are safe, as reports show the U.S. housing market has taken the “sharpest turn” since the 2008 real estate crash. Mortgage rates, thanks to the U.S. central bank’s rate hikes have rallied above 6%. A 75bps increase codified by the Federal Reserve next week, will push mortgage and loan rates even higher. It can easily be argued that crypto markets, equities, and precious metals won’t react well to next week’s Fed hike. All of the FOMC rate hikes during the last few months have put a lot more pressure on a myriad of markets.