Bitcoin slid toward $101,000 as Fed signaled slower 2025 cuts

The Federal Reserve lowered its federal-funds target range by 25 basis points to 4.25%–4.50% on December 18, 2024, but bitcoin fell as policymakers projected a slower pace of monetary easing during 2025.

CoinDesk’s report, updated at 4:33 p.m. Eastern, recorded bitcoin moving from approximately $104,000 after the policy announcement toward $101,000 during Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference. Its displayed bitcoin-in-U.S.-dollars measure was down nearly 5% over the preceding 24 hours. The reversal came after bitcoin had traded above $108,000 on December 17, placing the market’s newest record immediately against a less supportive interest-rate outlook.

The juxtaposition mattered institutionally. Bitcoin’s post-election rally had reflected enthusiasm about prospective U.S. cryptocurrency policy, but the December 18 move demonstrated that digital assets remained exposed to inflation expectations, dollar liquidity and the relative return available on interest-bearing instruments.

The cut carried a restrictive message

The December action was the Federal Open Market Committee’s third consecutive reduction and brought cumulative easing since September to one percentage point. Eleven officials supported the decision. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack dissented, preferring to maintain the previous 4.50%–4.75% range.

The stronger signal came from the accompanying Summary of Economic Projections. The median participant placed the federal-funds rate at 3.9% at the end of 2025, up from 3.4% in the September projection. Powell characterized that path as two quarter-point cuts during 2025, compared with four in September.

Officials also raised their median 2025 projections for both headline and core personal-consumption-expenditures inflation to 2.5%. The September medians had been 2.1% for headline PCE inflation and 2.2% for core PCE inflation. These figures measure projected fourth-quarter-to-fourth-quarter changes; they were individual conditional assessments, not enacted policy or promises about future meetings.

Powell said the December cut had been a closer decision and that the committee was at or near the point where slowing further adjustments would be appropriate. He linked the projected slower path to higher recent inflation readings and greater expected inflation. The policy rate remained meaningfully restrictive in the Fed’s assessment.

Crypto losses widened during the press conference

CoinDesk reported that bitcoin was already lower before the announcement, then turned down from approximately $104,000 as Powell spoke. XRP, Cardano’s ADA and Litecoin were each approximately 10% lower over the outlet’s trailing 24-hour window.

Those observations establish timing and breadth, but not exclusive causation. CoinDesk’s article does not identify a single execution venue or describe a consolidated closing auction; bitcoin and other crypto assets trade continuously across exchanges. The approximately $101,000 figure was a point-in-time publisher snapshot, while the nearly 5% comparison covered a rolling 24-hour period. It was not a Federal Reserve release-to-close return.

Positioning after the December 17 record, leverage, profit-taking and venue-specific liquidity could also have influenced the decline. The defensible interpretation is that the revised policy outlook supplied an identifiable macroeconomic catalyst, not that it explained every transaction.

Powell separated the Fed from a bitcoin reserve

Asked whether a U.S. government bitcoin reserve would have value, Powell said the Federal Reserve was not permitted to own bitcoin under its governing statute and was not seeking a legislative change. He left any such change for Congress to consider.

That answer addressed the Federal Reserve’s authority and intentions. It did not establish that Congress, the Treasury Department or another part of the federal government could not pursue a reserve under different authority. On December 18, a federal bitcoin reserve remained a political proposal rather than an adopted program.

The event-day record therefore supports a narrow conclusion: the Fed delivered an expected rate reduction, but its inflation projections and slower anticipated path outweighed the headline cut for cryptocurrency markets, sending bitcoin sharply lower during the policy window without determining its subsequent course.