As economic conditions continue to worsen, financial experts worldwide are increasingly placing the blame at the feet of the United States Federal Reserve after the central bank was slow to respond to rising inflation early on. Financial markets are currently experiencing their worst stretch of losses in recent history, and it doesn’t appear that there is any relief in sight. May 24 saw the tech-heavy Nasdaq fall another 2%, while Snap, a popular social media company, shed 43.1% of its market cap in trading on May 23. This past couple of months have been absolutely brutal for the markets… 8 …

Michael Barr, a law professor and former advisory board member of Ripple Labs who is United States President Joe Biden’s pick for vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve, called for U.S. lawmakers to regulate stablecoins in an effort to address “financial stability risks.” In a confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, Barr said innovative technologies including cryptocurrencies had “some potential for upside in terms of economic benefit” but also “some significant risks,” citing the need for a regulatory framework on stablecoins to prevent the risk of runs. Barr added that the Fed potentially releasing a …

Ether (ETH) price has been trying to establish an ascending channel since the May 12 market-wide crash that sent its price to $1,790. Currently, the altcoin’s support stands at $2,000, but the high correlation to traditional markets is causing traders to be highly skeptical s cryptocurrency market recovery. To date, the Federal Reserve continues to dictate the markets’ performance and uncertainty has been the prevailing sentiment because the central banks of major economies are trying to tame inflation. Considering that the correlation between crypto markets and the S&P 500 index has been above 0.85 since March 29, traders are likely …

Bitcoin (BTC) circled $30,000 on May 18 after fresh comments from the United States Federal Reserve sparked volatility. Analyst: Extra Fed rate hikes “biggest risk” Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD consolidating within a range in place since May 12. The pair had come unstuck as Fed Chair Jerome Powell delivered economic policy insights during the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival. “I don’t know if financial conditions have tightened more than this in a very long time,” he told the paper’s chief economics correspondent, Nick Timiraos, in an interview. Powell appeared to confirm that 50-basis-point …

The United States Senate has confirmed the nomination of Jerome Powell as the chair of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System until 2026. In an 80–19 landslide vote on the Senate floor on Thursday, U.S. lawmakers confirmed Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve, a position he held from February 2018 until February 2022, when he was named chair pro tempore until a confirmation vote could be secured. Powell was one of four Fed nominees awaiting a full Senate vote following weeks of delays due, in part, to partisan obstructionism — Republican lawmakers in the Senate Banking …

Investors were surprised by Bitcoin (BTC) price falling to $25,500 on May 12, and this shock extended to options traders. The strong correction was not restricted to cryptocurrencies and some large-cap stocks faced 25% or heavier weekly losses in the same period. Growing economic uncertainty impacted S&P 500 index members like Illumina (ILMN), which declined by 27% over the past seven days and Caesars Entertainment (CZR) faced a 25% drop. Shopify (SHOP), one of the largest Canadian e-commerce companies also saw its stock plunge by 28%. Traders are scratching their heads and asking whether it’s the U.S. Federal Reserve tightening …

Macro investor Raoul Pal is convinced that the current crypto bear market will end only once the Fed eases its hawkish monetary policy by halting interest rate hikes. That could happen in the next couple of months, according to Pal's predictions. “The Fed are unlikely to raise rates as far and as fast as people expect. My guess is they probably stop raising rates sometime in the summer and that will be it,” he said in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph. Pal sees the combination of high interest rates and fear of an upcoming recession as the main macro factors …

ApeCoin (APE) has undergone a sharp recovery after falling to its lowest level in two months. But its strong correlation with Bitcoin (BTC) and U.S. equities amid macro risks suggests more losses could be in store. APE rebounds after 80% losses in two weeks APE rebounded by nearly 45% to $7.30 on May 12. The upside retracement move came after APE dropped circa 81% to $5 on May 11, from its record high near $27.50, established on April 28. The seesaw price action mirrored similar volatile moves elsewhere in the crypto market, led by the chaos around TerraUSD (UST) — …

The United States Federal Reserve Board released its semiannual Financial Stability Report on Monday. The report points to the volatility on commodities markets brought on by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19 and “higher and more persistent than expected” inflation as sources of instability. Stablecoins and some types of money market funds were singled out in the report and noted to be prone to runs. According to the Fed, stablecoins have an aggregate value of $180 billion, with 80% of that amount represented by Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and Binance USD (BUSD). …

Polygon (MATIC) price reversed course to the upside on May 10 after testing $0.794 as its interim support, thus rising by up to 25% to $0.99. The rebound occurred a day after the token slumped over 17% to reach $0.787, its lowest level since July 2021, amid a global market crash led by the U.S. Federal Reserve's hawkish policies. MATIC price rebounded after undergoing five days of relentless declines, attracting buyers around the same support level that had preceded a 275% bull run last year. A previous retest of the $0.787-level in July 2021 and the 0.786 Fib line (near …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) current 20% drop over the past four days has put the price at its lowest level in nine months and while these movements might seem extraordinary, quite a number of large listed companies and commodities faced a similar correction. For example, natural gas futures corrected 15.5% in four days and nickel futures traded down 8% on May 9. Other casualties of the correction include multiple $10 billion and higher market capitalization companies that are listed at U.S. stock exchanges. Bill.com (BILL) traded down 30%, while Cloudflare (NET) presented a 25.4% price correction. Dish Network (DISH) also faced a …

Wall Street’s slow embrace of crypto means we all have to start watching the Federal Reserve again. Cointelegraph parsed through the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy statement on Wednesday to try and uncover some nuggets of useful information. You can think of it as an exercise in financial esoterics to uncover the hidden meaning behind the Fed’s decision-making. As it turns out, the decision to raise interest rates by 50 basis points was already expected, so the actual FOMC document provided very little new information. But, Fed Chair Jerome Powell sparked a late rally in crypto and stocks …