US Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by 25 Basis Points, Bitcoin Price Reacts

No surprises today as the US Federal Reserve announces the second consecutive rate cut of 25 basis points.

The US Federal Reserve has moved to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point (or 25 basis points) today in a bid to steady an apparently weakening labor market.

The cut is a second in a roll and comes amid a month-long government shutdown.

At the time of this writing, Bitcoin’s price trades at around $111,400, down over 3% over the past 24 hours.

Liquidations in the derivatives markets remain somewhat elevated at around $560 million for the day, while the total cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at $3.86 trillion according to data from CoinGecko.

The move was largely anticipated and likely priced in as traders on prediction markets such as Polymarket weighed odds heavily in its favor for weeks.

In addition to cutting rates, Powell said that the Fed will be ending the reduction of its asset purchases on December 1st. This is what’s commonly referred to as quantitative tightening.

That said, policymakers remain challenged by the lack of economic data as the shutdown of the US government has essentially halted the collection of important reports on inflation and employment.

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