Fed holds rates at 3.75%–4%; bitcoin steady near $81,000

The Federal Reserve left its benchmark rate unchanged at 3.75%–4% on Wednesday, and bitcoin barely reacted. The decision, released at 18:00 UTC, passed by a 10–2 vote, with Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack both preferring a quarter-point increase, according to the Fed's statement. Bitcoin edged up about 0.2% to roughly $80,950 in the following minutes, Decrypt reported.

What the Fed said

• Growth: economic activity is "expanding at a strong pace", an upgrade from the "solid" pace described in September.
• Inflation: it "remains elevated", and the committee said more information will help it decide the right policy stance to bring inflation back to 2%.
• Plumbing: the interest rate paid on bank reserves stays at 3.90% from Oct. 29.

The hold was widely expected. CME FedWatch had put the odds of no change at around 90% before the meeting. The Fed raised rates in September, its first hike since 2023. It was Cook's first dissent since she joined the Board in 2022, CNBC noted; Hammack also dissented in July.

How crypto traded

Bitcoin briefly climbed above $81,600 earlier on Wednesday before slipping back below a resistance zone of roughly $81,000–$82,500 that has capped several rallies this year, according to Decrypt. Ether traded around $2,360. The price snapshot above comes from CoinGecko at build time and is not a live quote.

The backdrop is tight: September consumer prices rose 3.7% from a year earlier, and the 10-year Treasury yield closed Tuesday at 4.99%, after peaking at 5.31% on Oct. 5. When safe government bonds pay close to 5%, a non-yielding asset like bitcoin has to compete harder for money. Our new explainer on how interest rates affect bitcoin walks through that link step by step, and our report on the hot September CPI print shows how fast BTC can react to inflation data.

What comes next

• Nov. 3: US midterm elections.
• Nov. 6: October jobs report; Nov. 10: October inflation data.
• Dec. 8–9: the next Fed meeting, with fresh economic projections. Before Wednesday's decision, traders saw better than a 70% chance of a hike there.

Rate surprises tend to hit leveraged traders first: after Chair Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole speech in August, about $481 million of crypto positions were liquidated within 24 hours, Decrypt noted. Our guide to liquidation in crypto explains how those forced closures work.