Investing.com — slipped on Wednesday, after the Federal Reserve’s hawkish tilt to its updated dot plot weighed on speculative assets like cryptocurrencies.
Risk sentiment was boosted earlier after President Donald Trump reiterated that a U.S.-Iran peace deal would be signed soon and would reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz.
The world’s largest crypto fell 2.1% to $64,386.8 by 17:37 ET (21:37 GMT).
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Fed hold rates, sees one rate hike this year
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on Wednesday unanimously voted to leave the federal funds rate unchanged at 3.50% to 3.75%, as widely expected. The FOMC released a revamped statement with significant changes from those under former chief Jerome Powell’s leadership, resulting in a much shorter and pared down version that dropped forward guidance and ended with a simple assertion: the FOMC “will deliver price stability.”
Separately, the FOMC’s updated Summary of Economic Projections (SEP), or dot plot, projected a federal funds rate at 3.8% at the end of 2026, revised upward from 3.4% in the previous dot plot in March.
The hawkish tilt to the dot plot was notable, with 9 of the 18 FOMC participants penciling in a rate hike this year and the overall projection switching to one 25 basis point rate hike from at least two 25 basis point rate cuts. Investors across asset classes reacted the hawkishness, with Wall Street sliding, the jumping, and soaring.
Meanwhile, new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh at the post-decision press conference outlined sweeping changes to current central bank practices.
Warsh announced the creation of task forces to review five areas central to monetary policy: the Fed’s communications, including future press conferences and dot plots; the central bank’s balance sheet; the use and reliance on existing data sources; productivity and jobs in the era of AI; and the Fed’s inflation framework, which will not include a revision of the central bank’s 2% inflation target.
Bitcoin had earlier this week been supported by easing outflows from spot exchange-traded funds, although spot ETFs were nursing five straight weeks of deep outflows.
Uniswap surges as Stanchart sets $100 price target
Away from the Fed, Uniswap’s token rose sharply on Wednesday after Standard Chartered initiated coverage of the decentralized finance (DEFI) token with a $100 price target by end-2030.
UNI rose to as high as $3.7290, a near one-month high, before losing some ground to $3.3 at the time of writing.
Stanchart argued that Uniswap – the biggest decentralized exchange – could become a larger market infrastructure player as tokenized assets move further into DEFI.
The brokerage expects UNI to hit $6.50 by end-2026– a near 100% jump from current levels– followed by $20 in 2027, before making its way to $100 in 2030.
Stanchart expects Uniswap to gain a greater presence in market settlement and trading operations amid a wave of increased interest in tokenized assets. The defi exchange already has tokenized versions of major stocks, and also recently opened access to BlackRock’s BUIDL fund on its platform.
Crypto price today: altcoins mostly follow Bitcoin lower
Broader crypto prices largely fell in tandem with Bitcoin as the Fed’s hawkish dot plot reverberated across the market.
World no.2 crypto slid 2.9% to $1,743.72.
and fell 2.8% each, while shed 0.9% and Cardano dipped 3.8%.
Among meme tokens, slipped 1.8% and was down 0.6%.
Ambar Warrick and Vahid Karaahmetovic contributed to this article