Fed pauses rates, trader walks away $2.4 million richer originally appeared on TheStreet.
The Federal Reserve decided to keep the interest rates unchanged at 4.25%-4.5%.
Officials project two interest rate cuts totaling 50 bps in 2025, leading to a potential range of 3.75%-4%. Officials also project one rate cut of 25 bps each in 2026 and 2027.
The crypto market wasn’t pleased with the Fed’s announcement, even if it was along expected lines. The total crypto market cap declined from $3.24 trillion to $3.23 trillion within minutes of the announcement.
As per Kraken’s price feed, Bitcoin fell from around $104,350 to $104,256.70.
Ethereum, on the other hand, remained nearly unchanged and was trading at $2,494.74 at press time.
The much-discussed XRP suffered a modest fall from $2.15 to trade at $2.14 at the time of writing.
As reported earlier, leading analysts such as the Wall Street Journal’s chief economics correspondent Nick Timiraos wrote that there are good reasons to think that the central bank could have slashed interest rates, if not for the risks posed by President Donald Trump’s tariff policy on inflation.
If the Fed decides to lower interest rates to the range of 3.75%-4% as projected, it is estimated to lead to a substantial inflow of funds into the crypto market.
As the Fed made the announcement, it turned out that one trader on Polymarket had bet $2.4 million to win $2.4 million on the Fed’s move — winning them around $60,000.
When Polymarket’s X account asked if it was a smart bet, a popular humor account, Not Jerome Powell (@alifarhat79), gave a deadpan response, “No it’s not.”
Polymarket is a leading crypto-based prediction market on which traders can place bets on a number of events, such as political phenomena, economic news, sports, entertainment, etc., using cryptocurrency.
Fed pauses rates, trader walks away $2.4 million richer first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 18, 2025
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 18, 2025, where it first appeared.
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