Bitcoin, Ethereum Sink as Fed’s Hammack Makes Case for Holding Interest Rates Steady

The price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fell on Thursday as the president of the Cleveland Federal Reserve, Beth Hammack, said she wouldn’t support cutting interest rates if forced to make a decision tomorrow.

“With the data I have right now and with the information I have, if the meeting was tomorrow, I would not see a case for reducing interest rates,” she told Yahoo Finance at the central bank’s annual gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Bitcoin changed hands around $112,300 on Thursday, a 1.6% dip over the past day, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. BTC fell as low as $112,238 at one point, its lowest mark since early July. 

Ethereum meanwhile fell 2.6% to $4,230, while Solana and XRP slid 3.5% to $180 and 3.4% to $2.87, respectively.

In a Myriad Linea market, about two-thirds of the respondents expected the U.S. central bank to change its interest rate.

As the Fed tries to balance its dual mandate of stable prices and full employment, Hammack said officials should be “laser-focused” on inflation because a recent drop in job growth numbers may be painting a more precarious picture of the labor market than is actually the case.

Traders grew more confident that the Fed would cut rates in September after 258,000 jobs were wiped away from growth figures for May and June, but Hammack said the unemployment rate has remained within a stable range, clocking in at 4.2% in July.

“Even though we’re seeing much slower headline job growth numbers, it could be that the labor market is still in balance,” she said. “Yes, labor demand may be coming down, but labor supply has come down pretty dramatically as well.”

Hammack said that she would want to think that “the economy was materially weakening” before supporting monetary policy that’s intended to stimulate economic growth, adding that she’s not “seeing any signs of potential significant downturns.”

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman voted in favor of a rate cut in July alongside another governor. In a speech earlier this month, she said that the decision was based on “signs of fragility,” including a slower economy and less dynamic labor market.

Most officials at the central bank’s last policy meeting were more worried about inflation than jobs, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s eighth and final speech in Jackson Hole tomorrow could make that even clearer, according to Juan Leon, Senior Investment Strategist at Bitwise.

“Powell’s speech tomorrow is likely to lean ‘cautiously hawkish,’” he told Decrypt, anticipating an emphasis on sticky inflation and tariff uncertainty. “A firmer tone risks a rates-higher, dollar-firmer, risk-off whiplash—typically negative for high-beta assets like crypto.”

Traders were all but certain the central bank will cut rates at the conclusion of its September meeting earlier this month, but those hopes had dimmed to 73% probability on Thursday from 92% a week prior, according to CME FedWatch.

In a Myriad Linea market, about two-thirds of respondents expect the central bank to change interest rates. (Disclosure: Myriad is a prediction market and engagement platform developed by Dastan, parent company of an editorially independent Decrypt.)

With markets currently priced for easing, Leon said investors could be disappointed if Powell references a September cut without explicitly blessing it.

“Powell’s likely to preach patience, not pivots—nudging the Fed back toward inflation-first orthodoxy,” he said. “That would be a short-term headwind for high-beta assets like crypto, unless he unexpectedly cracks the door open to a September cut.”