Fed holds interest rates, markets dip into the red

Crypto and equities dipped lower Wednesday after the central bank said interest rates wouldn’t be budging

article-image

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell | Source: JAndrea Hanks "Jerome Powell" (CC license)

share

The Federal Reserve opted to keep interest rates at their current level Wednesday, marking the first pause in 15 months. 

Ongoing improvements in the labor market and low unemployment, coupled with elevated inflation, led to the committee’s decision, the central bank wrote in Wednesday’s statement

The move is the first time the Fed has paused increases since starting to raise rates in March 2022. The stretch lasted ten consecutive rate increase rounds, a strategy the Fed hoped will curb the highest inflation the country has seen in more than four decades, but markets have fretted over whether a soft landing is achievable.

“Holding the target range steady at this meeting allows the Committee to assess additional information and its implications for monetary policy,” central bankers wrote in Wednesday’s statement. “In determining the extent of additional policy firming that may be appropriate to return inflation to 2 percent over time, the Committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity  and inflation, and economic and financial developments.” 

Committee members also noted that recent headwinds in the US banking system have contributed to a decline in economic conditions, although the Fed is confident that the crisis is over. 

“The U.S. banking system is sound and resilient,” the statement read. “Tighter credit conditions for households and businesses are likely to weigh on economic activity, hiring, and inflation.” 

Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) were largely flat the news, with bitcoin edging down around 0.1% and ether losing about 0.4%. Both tokens have extended losses over the past month, trading down 4% each. 

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes dipped on the news, each posting losses of about 0.5%.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (8).png

Research

Meta-aggregators like Titan and Kamino Swap improve price execution for users, making the Solana swapping landscape more competitive. Jupiter has incorporated meta-aggregation features into its latest routing engine to keep users on its front end (own the user, own the flow). At large, teams are treating swaps as a commoditized complement, offering incredibly cheap or free swaps to own the end-user and increase demand for high-margin product offerings (multi-product DeFi). On another note, the divergence in the concentration of aggregator volume between DEXs suggests increased specialization at the DEX layer by asset type.

article-image

Solana dropped nearly 10% amid mass crypto liquidations triggered by rising geopolitical strife

article-image

Investors moved to safe assets like the US dollar and gold, but bonds faltered

article-image

The Amex offers up to 4% bitcoin back, but the deal is a bit ironic considering crypto’s goals

article-image

Short answer: Subnets are now cheaper to bootstrap than a Celestia rollup

article-image

Few things are more cypherpunk than keeping keys in your brain wallet

article-image

Many community banks and credit unions feel like they missed the fintech craze — and they don’t want to miss stablecoins