Crypto Markets Rally as Fed Chair Cautions Against Prolonged High Interest Rates

Crypto markets continued to climb on Wednesday morning after Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, cautioned that maintaining high interest rates for an extended period could pose risks to the U.S. economy.

“Reducing policy restraint too late or too little could unduly weaken economic activity and employment,” Powell said during his semiannual update on monetary policy. “More good data would strengthen our confidence that inflation is moving sustainably towards 2%.”

Powell’s remarks suggest that the U.S. Federal Reserve may soon consider reducing interest rates should current economic trends continue.

The crypto market responded favorably, with the combined digital asset market cap up 1% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

Bitcoin (BTC) recorded a 2% rise to trade above $58,000, while Ethereum (ETH) climbed 1% to cross $3,100.

Stacks (STX) was the best-performing cryptocurrency among the top 100 by market cap with a 9% daily gain, followed by Sei (SEI) with 7.5%, and Floki (FLOKI) with 7.1%.

LayerZero’s ZRO token has consistently rallied over the past two weeks, posting a fortnightly gain of 65% to trade 3% shy of its all-time high of $4.57. Celestia’s (TIA) is also the strongest performing top 100 token of the past seven days with a gain of 25%.

Polkadot (DOT) also gained 0.5% in 24 hours to hold above $6, while Solana (SOL) rebounded by 1.7% and last changed hands for $139.5.

Asset issuers file for Solana ETFs

The rise in Solana’s price follows VanEck and 21Shares filing applications with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for spot Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) two weeks ago.

On July 8. the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) submitted 19b-4 filings with the SEC requesting approval to list these products. The SEC will have 240 days to issue a verdict on the prospective funds once the regulator formally acknowledges the filings,

Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, argued that the fate of these ETFs could hinge on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in November.

“Looks like Solana ETFs are going to have a final deadline of mid-March 2025,” he tweeted. “Between now and then, the most imp[ortant] date is in November. If Biden wins, these likely [dead on arrival]. If Trump wins, anything [is] poss[ible].”

Mainstream markets

U.S. stock futures remained relatively stable on Wednesday. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 0.02%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures gained 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively.

Investors are awaiting the publication of the consumer price index for June on Thursday, followed by the producer price index on Friday.