Bitcoin Falls Slightly After Jerome Powell Confirms Fed Rate Hike Pause Still Up In The Air

Bitcoin, the world's largest crypto asset by market capitalization, recorded a slight drop in its price after the U.S. Federal Reserve hiked the interest rate by 25 basis points (bps). Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that the decision on pausing interest rate hike is still up in the air.

Bitcoin's price dipped below $28,500 after the highly-awaited Federal Reserve announcement, showing a 1% loss from its previous price of $28,350 over the past 24 hours, as per CoinMarketCap's data.

Following the interest rate hike announcement, Powell said in a press conference after the Federal Open Market Committee (FMOC) meeting that there was no decision made about the interest rate hike pause, noting that the committee would discuss the decision meeting by meeting.

The Fed's decision Wednesday is the 10th rate hike in a span of 14 months.

Powell also assured the public that the U.S. central bank will use a data-driven approach to identifying the extent of further interest rate hikes.

The FOMC, on the other hand, noted that "tighter credit conditions for households and businesses are likely to weigh on economic activity, hiring and inflation" and said that it would monitor inflation risks.

Further, the FOMC expressed its commitment to return the inflation in the country to its target objective of 2%.

"In determining the extent to which additional policy firming may be appropriate to return inflation to 2 percent over time, the Committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments," the FOMC said in a statement.

"In addition, the Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities, as described in its previously announced plans. The Committee is strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2 percent objective," it added.

Following its slight plummet, Bitcoin recouped its loss Wednesday. The world's first-ever crypto asset saw a 1.94% gain over the past 24 hours and was trading in the green zone at $29,175.44 with a 24-hour volume of $19,418,888,331 as of 2:59 a.m. ET on Thursday, according to the latest data from cryptocurrency aggregator CoinMarketCap.