Bitcoin Price Jumps Towards $50K As Fed Chair Speaks
Bitcoin quickly turned green as the Fed announced a quicker withdrawal of its asset purchasing programs and likely interest rate hikes in 2022. The Federal Reserve said in a statement Wednesday that it will speed up the decrease of its monthly asset purchases starting in January, as inflation keeps rising above its long-run target of 2%. The central bank decided to double the pace of reductions in asset purchases and will now cut it by $30 billion per month, compared to a previous rate of $15 billion. The Fed expects to cease the purchases of assets by mid-March, months before its previous expectations. The central bank will not raise interest rates until that happens but see three rate hikes coming in 2022. Bitcoin, which was in negative territory right before the announcement, quickly geared upwards to hit $49,500. At the time of writing, BTC is trading above $49,000. “The economy is so much stronger now,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in his post-meeting conference call, justifying the committees decision. “Inflation is well above target and growth is well above potential.” Powell added that the central bank would use its tools to prevent higher inflation from becoming entrenched in the economy and expects inflation to