Everything edited by: Bi Luming
In the past month, virtual currency has been falling continuously. On September 22, Bitcoin fell below the two major marks of $20,000 and $19,000 again. As of press time, Bitcoin has temporarily reported US$18,578, a sharp drop of 8.09%.
According to BTC126 real-time data, a total of more than 2.3 billion yuan of virtual currency contracts have been liquidated in one day. A total of 75,291 people have liquidated their positions in the past 24 hours. The largest single liquidation receipt occurred at Bitmex-ETHUSDT worth US$6.14 million.
news, on September 21 local time, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that it would raise the target range of the federal funds rate by 75 basis points to between 3% and 3.25%. This is the fifth time that the Federal Reserve rate hike in this year, and it is also the third consecutive rate hike in 75 basis points. Affected by this news, the three major indexes of U.S. stocks plunged in late trading and closed down. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said at a press conference that in order to pull inflation back to 2% and remain stable, he will work to raise interest rates and keep interest rates high until inflation drops.
Fed Chairman: Will continue to raise interest rates until inflation eases
According to CCTV News on the 22nd, on September 21 local time, after the Federal Reserve announced a 75 basis point rate hike, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said at a press conference that in order to pull the inflation rate back to 2% and maintain stability, he will be committed to raising interest rates and keeping interest rates high until inflation drops. He said that according to historical records, policies cannot be relaxed too early.
On September 21, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell attended a press conference in Washington. Image source: Xinhua News Agency
Powell said that the United States has no room for complacency, and although it is appropriate to slow down the pace of rate hikes at some point, the Federal Reserve will "stick until the work is done." Powell said it was impossible to predict whether this process would lead to an economic recession and how severe the recession would be, "it will depend on the rate of decline in wages and inflation pressures, whether expectations remain stable and whether we can get more labor supply." He added that if policies need to be subject to more restrictions to achieve the 2% inflation target, the likelihood of a “soft landing” will be reduced, however, high inflation will bring greater long-term pain.
Powell said that despite some improvement in the supply chain, the decline in inflation so far has not been as large as the Fed expects, and housing inflation will remain high for some time. Powell said that supply and demand relationships need to be readjusted to ensure affordability of housing.
The Federal Reserve announced on the 21st economic forecast believes that the U.S. inflation rate measured by personal consumption expenditure (PCE) will reach 5.4% in 2022 and drop to 2.8% in 2023. According to forecasts, the growth of GDP in the United States in 2022 will be only 0.2%, and 1.2% in 2023; by the end of 2022, the unemployment rate in the United States will reach 3.8%, and will rise to 4.4% in 2023.
Federal officials have previously said they are seeking a "soft landing" of the U.S. economy to curb inflation by slowing growth but not triggering a recession. However, economists are increasingly worried that over time, the Fed's sharp rate hikes will lead to sharp layoffs in U.S. businesses, rising unemployment rates, and a full-scale recession at the end of this year or early next year. Associated Press also commented in the report that radical interest rate hikes have increased the risk of the United States falling into a recession.
According to Securities Times , in the view of industry insiders, the surge in USD index not only brings about the fluctuations in the global financial market, but also the bloody storm in the virtual currency market. In fact, there are also many virtual currencies with cumulative declines of more than 80% this year. Currently, the total market value of the global digital currency has fallen below $1 trillion.
The Fed's interest rate hike trajectory has always been an important factor in determining the Bitcoin price trend in 2022. Since the beginning of this year, as the Federal Reserve steadily raises interest rates, the price of virtual currency has fallen. Under the uncertainty of the path and amplitude of the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike in , assets with higher risk fluctuations have occurred. Cici Lu, CEO of consulting firm Venn Link Partners, said: "Funds are flowing out of risky assets. Virtual currencies follow the sharp adjustments in U.S. stocks."Some industry insiders believe that due to the close correlation between US stocks and virtual currencies in recent months, the Fed's attitude has penetrated into the virtual currency market, which is the reason for the recent sell-off of Bitcoin.