Ether trades above $1,800 with bitcoin steady; B2C2 says ‘strap in’ ahead of the Fed

Ether and altcoins gained as bitcoin was treading water a day out from the Fed’s latest interest rate decision.

There’s been a rotation in gains over the past day, with ether higher by about 2% and bitcoin relatively flat around $28,000. Ether was trading at $1,810 by 11 a.m. EDT, up 4% according to TradingView data. Bitcoin slipped about 0.1% in the same period to trade at $28,070.

ETHUSD chart by TradingView

Some altcoins popped after a sluggish start to the week. Ripple’s XRP jumped over 11%, Cardano’s ADA was up 2%.

This week is all about Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, according to market maker B2C2’s Adam Farthing. SoFi’s head of investment strategy, Liz Young, told the On The Tape podcast on Monday that this is the central bank’s most important decision yet.

«Two weeks ago, the market was evenly split between 25- to 50-basis points, and is now pricing in zero basis points and later rate cuts, despite inflation re-accelerating and the job market staying tight,» Farthing said, adding that whatever the Fed decides, «crypto could do its own thing entirely.»

«We have seen plenty taking profit at current levels, which makes sense as the $28,500-$28,800 is a historically important area: where the market stopped dropping in mid-2021,» he said. A lot of those long traders have «simply recycled profits into call options, so it does feel that the market is short gamma to the topside. Either way, it’s going to be a big week — strap in!»

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