Ethereum Explodes 14% As Jay Powell Blinks on Interest Rate Cuts
Despite (or due to) a battle with President Trump, Jay Powell has signaled the Fed will change course
As we highlighted on Monday, this week was all about Fed Chair Jay Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole. And what would you know — he delivered the goods.
In his speech, he noted that the labor market softening is setting up a need for the Fed to become more accommodative with rate cuts despite persistent inflation. Markets ate that dovish tilt up, sending crypto surging. Ethereum was up 14%, Bitcoin up 4%, and Solana was up 8%.
“In the near-term, risks to inflation are tilted to the upside and risks to employment to the downside,” Chair Powell said, calling it a challenging position to be in. “Nonetheless, with policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks, may warrant adjusting our policy stance.”
The implications of just those sentences are clearly huge. Odds of a September rate hike surged higher and crypto added more than $200 billion in total market cap to trade north of $4 trillion once again (with a huge grain of salt.) That all bodes well for crypto to continue churning as more digital asset treasury companies continue their crypto buys.
Former CFTC Chairman & ‘Crypto Dad’ Joins Coinage
Chris Giancarlo earned the title “Crypto Dad” by being one of the first few government officials who understood and appreciated what crypto could offer the traditional financial system.
This week, we sat down with Giancarlo for a wide-ranging interview on everything from stablecoins, to the New York Giants, to the President’s family launching their own stablecoin.
Could more versions of a digital dollar unravel the thread that holds us all together as Americans? Watch to hear what one of the most respected names in the space has to say:
Wyoming Drops It’s Own Stablecoin
Speaking of, the state of Wyoming surprised some people this week with the launch of their own stablecoin. The FRNT stablecoin is putting the Cowboy State on the map in a new way — by breaking from the mold that has cemented Tether and Circle atop the leaderboard.
Instead of having interest profits go to a company, Wyoming is earmarking profits for its fund to benefit the state’s schools.
It’s an interesting twist for stablecoins in a space that is sure to continue seeing new innovation. All in all, it seems to be proving Tom Lee’s thesis on why he sees Ethereum surging to $10,000 right. As everyone and their mom starts spinning up stablecoins for their state, or community online, that means more activity (and users and money) coming onchain.
The New York Stock Exchange even asked me to come down to talk about it on TV! (Taking Stock segment below.)
The next official Fed rate decision is due up in 25 days. Currently, President Trump is threatening to fire one of the Fed’s Governors, Lisa Cook, if she doesn’t resign.
That will likely make for much more volatility heading into the meeting. Stay tuned to Coinage for all the biggest headlines in Web3!