Ethereum, Cardano, and Dogecoin Lead Weekly Crypto Losses

The crypto markets continue to tumble after last week’s regulatory action and yesterday’s Fed notes.

Over the past week, Cardano (ADA) has been the biggest loser within the market’s top ten largest cryptocurrencies, plummeting 22%. Over the last day, the asset has fallen 7%, per CoinGecko.

Other major losers this past week include Binance’s BNB token (down 10.3%), XRP (down 9.1%), and Dogecoin (down 9.5%).

Bitcoin (BTC) plummeted below $25,000 Wednesday morning trading 4% lower at $24,900. Over the week, the market’s largest digital asset is down 6%.

CoinGecko data shows that the total crypto cap lost 4.2% or roughly $40 billion in the last 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) dropped by 6.4% and touched three-month lows of around $1,630. On the weekly timeline, ETH is currently down more than 11.3%.

The wider crypto market is currently swimming in a sea of red amid the uncertainty around the pivot in the U.S. Federal Reserve’s stance on hiking interest rates.

The markets initially had a soft reaction to the Fed’s decision, trading sideways after the meeting; however, the downturn accelerated on Thursday morning.

Fed rates and crypto markets

The American central bank maintained the interest rate, leaving its benchmark interest unchanged in Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

It also hinted that a few more interest rate hikes could come by the year’s end.

Rate hikes increase the borrowing cost making credit expensive which cramps up room for wage and business growth. At the same time, higher interest rates in direct bank deposits and government bonds can make stocks and crypto less attractive to investors.

Today’s 0.17% uptick in the dollar index (DXY) against other reverse currencies after the FOMC meeting further affirms that the price action is driven by Fed’s decision.

The U.S. stock market also reacted negatively to Fed’s uncertain rate pause as the S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 indices dropped initially after the news.

However, the equity indices recovered their intraday losses, with the S&P closing the day 0.08% higher and Nasdaq with 0.86% gains.