Bitcoin plunges back below $95,000

Bitcoin sunk below $92,000 early Friday before recovering some ground, on the heels of the Federal Reserve signaling a slowdown in interest rate cuts for 2025.

The leading cryptocurrency traded at $94,104.06 on Friday morning, down about 7.7% over the past day. Bitcoin has slumped more than 10% since the start of the week, when it hit highs of more than $106,000 .

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by volume, was down 12% to $3,237.77. Other major digital assets, including Solana and Cardano, similarly saw double-digit declines in value over the last 24 hours.

The losses come after the Fed’s third and final interest rate cut of the year. On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee voted to reduce the federal funds rate by a quarter point, to between 4.25% and 4.50%.

While lower interest rates tends to favor markets, even cryptocurrencies, because they improve investors’ appetite for risk and create excess capital used for investments, Bitcoin has taken a hit this week.

That’s because the central bank returned its focus to concerns about inflation, which is still running hotter than the Fed had hoped for just a few months ago. The Fed indicated in its updated Summary of Economic Projections on Wednesday that, given quarter-point cuts, it could carry out just two reductions of the federal funds rate in 2025. That’s half the number it had previously expected.

“With today’s action, we have lowered our policy rate by a full percentage point from its peak and our policy stance is now significantly less restrictive,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a new conference Wednesday. “We can therefore be more cautious as we consider further adjustments to our policy rate.”

Central bankers also raised their inflation forecasts as year-end 2024 expectations have, in Powell’s words, “kind of fallen apart.” The Fed is now projecting headline inflation of 2.4%, a slight increase from 2.3% anticipated in September, and core inflation of 2.8%, up from 2.6%. The Fed also raised its 2024 GDP growth projection to 2.5%.

While Bitcoin has historically fared well against inflation, economic uncertainty and resurgent inflation fears can drive investors away from riskier assets and toward safer bets such as Treasury notes .

In his news conference, Powell also cast doubt on the feasibility of President-elect Donald Trump’s vows to set up a strategic Bitcoin reserve .

“We are not allowed to own Bitcoin,” he told reporters. “The Federal Reserve says what we can own and we’re not looking for a law change. That’s the kind of thing for Congress to consider but we are not looking for a law change at the Fed.”