Crypto, Stocks, PMs Sink Lower – All Eyes on the Fed’s Next Rate Hike as Ethereum’s Merge Hype Wavers

The Merge has ended and all the hype surrounding the transition from proof of work (PoW), to proof-ofstake (PoS), is now over . The rest of the crypto market saw modest gains up until The Merge ( ETH), but the changes have caused a drop in the overall crypto market by more than 3% over the past 24 hours.

According to statistics, the current market value of all crypto tokens is $965.42 million. The crypto economy was worth $1.16 trillion the day before The Merge. The entire crypto economy fell 3%, but bitcoin ( TCH) dropped 2.6% and Ethereum ( TCH) lost more that 7% against US dollars. As of the writing of this article, $87.39Billion in global 24-hour trade volume was available. Tether ( USDT) is responsible for $62.31 billion today’s volume.

BTC fell below the $20K per unit area to $19,794 per Bitcoin, while ethereum [ ETH] dropped to $1,495 a coin. Wall Street is also suffering amid the crypto economy crash. All four major indexes have fallen on Thursday afternoon. Precious Metals (PMs), such as gold, lost 1.70% over the past day. Silver is down 2.09% against U.S. dollars. Investors are concerned about the U.S. Federal Reserve rate rise following August’s consumer prices index (CPI), report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

On September 20-21, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), is scheduled to meet. Data indicates that 80% investors believe the Fed will raise the rate by 75basis points next week. The U.S. jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 213,000 last week, exceeding market expectations. As Treasury yields rose across the board, so is the bond market. On Thursday, the yield on the two-year Treasury note was at 3.85%, an increase of approximately six basis points (bps).

However, assets are not all safe as U.S. reports indicate that the housing market has seen the’sharpest change‘ since 2008’s real estate crash. The U.S. central banks rate hikes have pushed mortgage rates above 6%. The Federal Reserve will codify a 75bps rate hike next week. This will drive mortgage and loan rates higher. You can argue that crypto markets, equities and precious metals will not react well to the Fed’s next week’s Fed increase. The market has been under a lot of pressure from all the FOMC rate increases over the past few months.