Powell Holds Interest Rates Steady: BTC at 77K

Bitcoin

Powell Holds Interest Rates Steady: BTC at 77K

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell kept interest rates steady at the 3.50-3.75 band during Wednesdays FOMC meeting. In the 8-4 decision, four dissenters sent a message to the new Chairman Kevin Warsh. Powell announced he would continue in his role indefinitely after May, citing Trump investigations. The probability of a 2026 rate cut fell to 1%; crypto giants dropped 2-3%, pulling BTC to 76k, but it recovered +2.06% in the last 24 hours to reach the $77,352 level. While big tech earnings lifted the index, oil climbed to $105, gold to $4,640.

Big Tech Earnings and Meta USDC Move

Powell emphasized that pandemic, Ukraine, tariffs, and Iran shocks fueled the inflation-unemployment dilemma. Alphabet Google Cloud rose 63% to $20.1 billion, Amazon AWS grew 28% to $37.59 billion, Microsoft Azure jumped 40%. Meta missed user targets despite record revenue, with shares down 9%. Meta began USDC stablecoin payments to content creators in Colombia and the Philippines via Stripe; its crypto return is accelerating after four years through Solana and Polygon blockchains. This could speed up blockchain integration by social media giants.

BTC Technical Outlook and Supports

With no rate cut on the horizon, BTC is in a sideways trend, RSI 56.42, Supertrend bearish. EMA20: $75,638.

• Supports: S1 $71,926 (strong, -%6), S2 $75,642 (-%1.2)
• Resistances: R1 $79,423 (+%3.7 strong), R2 $76,735 (+%0.2)

Despite DeFi records, macro pressures dominate. For a detailed review, see BTC detailed analysis and BTC futures.