Crypto steadies near $76k as Warsh's first Fed decision looms

Crypto found its footing overnight after Tuesday's selloff, with bitcoin trading at $75,892 as of 05:56 UTC, up 0.3% from the 00:00 UTC open of $75,644 and holding just above Tuesday's low near $75,458. The stabilization comes ahead of Wednesday's Federal Reserve rate decision, the first to be delivered under new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh since he succeeded Jerome Powell in May.

What to watch

The Fed announces its rate decision at 2pm ET (18:00 UTC) Wednesday alongside the quarterly Summary of Economic Projections and dot plot. CME-implied odds put a 25-basis-point hike at roughly 91%, meaning the outcome itself is largely priced in — the market's real focus is Warsh's post-decision press conference at 2:30pm ET and the 2027 rate path the dot plot implies.

Markets

Wall Street fell Tuesday as Treasury yields surged and traders digested an AI-safety essay from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei: the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.63% to close at 52,093.11, the S&P 500 fell 0.45% to 7,585.73, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.78% to 25,981.57.

European markets extended their own losses. The FTSE 100 fell 0.4% to 10,654, weighed by rising oil prices and weak UK employment data. The Stoxx 600 declined 0.6% to a three-month low and the Euro Stoxx 50 dropped 0.8%, as climbing oil prices and multi-year-high bond yields pressured valuations across the continent.

Commodities

Oil pulled back from Tuesday's spike: WTI crude fell 1.1% to $104.68 a barrel, while Brent eased to a $106–108 range after topping $109 on Tuesday amid the continued outage of Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline. Gold traded at $4,289 an ounce, near five-week lows, as firming Fed hike odds weighed on the metal.

Crypto

Bitcoin traded at $75,892 as of 05:56 UTC, up 0.3% from the prior UTC-day open of $75,644. Ether traded at $2,404, also up 0.3% from its $2,398 open. XRP was the standout mover, up 0.7% to $1.2925, clawing back a sliver of Tuesday's CLARITY Act-driven plunge after the Senate's cloture vote on the crypto market-structure bill fell short of 60 votes.

What it means for crypto trading

With a rate hike already priced in near 91%, the decision itself is unlikely to move markets much. The real catalyst is qualitative: the dot plot's implied 2027 path and the tone Warsh strikes in his first press conference as Chair. A hawkish surprise on either front — or a hint that further hikes are coming — is the scenario most likely to pressure crypto and risk assets broadly through the rest of the week.

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