The crypto markets fell slightly on Wednesday after Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve Board, hinted that an October interest rate cut of 25 points may be the last such cut of 2025. Bitcoin dipped 1.6% over the past 24 hours to trade at nearly $111,000, according to data from Binance. Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down about 2% to a bit more than $3,900. The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies dropped 1.8%.
While Powell said there were “strongly differing views” among his colleagues about future rate cuts, he added during a press conference that “there’s a growing chorus now of feeling like maybe this is where we should at least wait a cycle.”
The S&P 500 ended Wednesday essentially flat, the Dow Jones was down about 0.2%, and the Nasdaq finished almost 0.6% up.
Despite the wavering markets, some crypto analysts were cautiously optimistic. “Easing monetary conditions are supportive of upward price momentum for BTC [Bitcoin] so long as the macroeconomic outlook doesn’t pose severe issues unforeseen by the market,” Alex Blume, founder and CEO of the crypto asset manager Two Prime, said in an email to Fortune.
The dip in cryptocurrency prices on Wednesday was smaller compared to a recent flash crash on Oct. 10 that wiped out more than $19 billion in positions in the largest crypto liquidation event ever tracked by the crypto analytics firm CoinGlass.
The crash coincided with President Donald Trump’s threat to hit China with a 100% tariff “over and above” existing tariffs, causing Bitcoin to shed more than $200 million in market cap and plummet nearly 10% in price. Ethereum experienced an even more drastic downturn, tanking almost 14%.
Just days after the flash crash, Trump walked back his aggressive rhetoric. “Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!” he posted on Truth Social. “The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!!”
The markets—including cryptocurrency prices—have since stabilized, and traders are anxiously awaiting the results of a Thursday meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping, the president of China. Since Oct. 10, Bitcoin has traded around $110,000 and Ethereum has hovered near $4,000.
“The fluctuating macroeconomic backdrop is [the] dominant driver of this crypto cycle,” Thomas Perfumo, global economist at the crypto exchange Kraken, said in an email to Fortune, adding later: “While the market is stabilizing after the Oct. 10 liquidation event, this ‘reset’ event certainly reduced short-term risk tolerance.”
