Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell released a 'hawkish' signal on Thursday, suggesting that the 'US economy is strong' and 'the Fed does not need to rush to cut interest rates', dampening market expectations of a rate cut in December. As the post-election celebration subsided, the cryptocurrency market fell today (15th), with BTC temporarily falling below $87,000.

During his speech to corporate leaders in Dallas on Thursday, Powell emphasized that "the US economy has not sent a signal that it urgently needs a rate cut" and "the resilience of the economy allows us to make more cautious decisions." The market interpreted Powell's remarks as more hawkish, implying that "the US economy is strong and there is no need to cut interest rates urgently."

CME FedWatch tool shows that after Powell's speech, traders' expectations of a rate cut in December have dropped from 76% to 62%, while the market's expectations the previous day were as high as 82.5%.

As a result, the price of BTC quickly fell after Powell's remarks, reaching a low of $86,994, and rebounded to $88,000 at the time of the deadline, with a 2.4% decline in the past 24 hours.

Ethercoin (ETH) also fell by nearly 4%, dropping below the key level of 3k USD; however, Ripple coin (XRP) instead experienced a big pump of 17.5%, with market speculations linking this to rumors of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler possibly resigning quietly due to Trump's election.

Powell's speech also affected the TradFi market, especially the Nasdaq index, which is mainly composed of technology stocks, which fell 0.75% before the close.

However, the overall Cryptocurrency market remains strong, with BTC's weekly increase exceeding 16%, and popular competitive tokens such as Cardano (ADA), Ripple (XRP), SUI, etc., recording weekly gains of 20% to 40%, while DOGE (DOGE) has surged by over 90% in the week, indicating that the market's confidence in Cryptocurrency remains strong.

The article "Fed Powell pours cold water on rate cut! BTC briefly fell below 87,000 US dollars, Ethercoin retreated to the 3k mark" was first published in "Block Times".