Summary
- Bitcoin climbed back above $60,000 after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation risks have come down while reaffirming the central bank's 2% target.
- Warsh said AI-driven investment could expand the U.S. economy's productive capacity, with potentially significant implications for future monetary policy.
- Fed officials joined other global central bankers in signaling a move away from explicit forward guidance on interest-rate decisions.
Bitcoin climbed back above the $60,000 level on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation risks had eased while reaffirming the central bank's commitment to returning inflation to its 2% target.
Warsh declined to provide guidance on the Federal Reserve's next interest-rate decision, saying policymakers would debate incoming data at their meeting in four weekds, during a panel discussion at the European Central Bank's annual forum in Sintra, Portugal.
Instead, he emphasized that the Fed remained focused on price stability.
“Inflation risks have come down,” Warsh said. “If there were people in households or the business sector, in the financial markets, who thought that this central bank was going to be comfortable with an inflation objective above 2%, well, I guess they'd be disappointed. We're going to deliver price stability in the U.S.”
Bitcoin pared earlier losses to trade back above the $60,000 level, an increase of more than 2% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk Data.