Crypto On May 3: Market Down Ahead Of FOMC Meeting

Most of the top cryptocurrencies traded lower Tuesday, a day ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

The global market cap was down 0.86% at $1.74 trillion as of 2.36 a.m. ET, CoinMarketCap data showed.

Bitcoin declined 1.27% to $38,529. Ethereum, too, slid 0.67% to $2,843. Barring a slight surge in Terra LUNA and TerraUSD, all other top 10 cryptos plunged. Meme tokens Shiba Inu and Dogecoin too fell.

Industry insiders attribute the drop in prices to the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting that is expected to determine the trend in the traditional and crypto markets globally. Gold prices have also fell ahead of the FOMC meeting.

Jennifer Lu, co-founder of Coinstore, said, "Investors are looking at the FOMC meeting which is scheduled to be held on Wednesday; the results of the meeting around monetary policies from the U.S Federal Reserve will determine the trend in the traditional and crypto markets globally.

"A hawkish outcome of the meeting may result in further sell-offs of high-risk assets," Lu told International Business Times.

In other news, New York's luxury fitness club Equinox will soon start accepting payments for gym services in cryptocurrency, local media reports noted. This will make the gym the first in the city to endorse digital currencies in its business.