Powells Last Pause: A Divided Fed, a Frozen Bill, and Bitcoins $250K Bull Case in Retreat
The benchmark federal funds rate stayed in a target range of 3.5% to 3.75%, a third consecutive hold, with the committee citing “developments in the Middle East” as a key source of economic uncertainty. The vote itself was the more interesting tell — an 8-4 split, with Governor Stephen Miran pushing for an immediate cut and three more dissenting against language that left the door open to easing later in the year. For Bitcoin, the read-across was unambiguous and immediate. BTC, which had spent the morning trying to clamber back above $77,000, drifted lower on the announcement and was trading near $75,400 by late Wednesday in New York. Ether followed it down, slipping under $2,250. The pair extended what is now a multi-week decline from local highs near $79,500 on April 21, and a roughly 40% drawdown from October 2025s all-time high near $126,000. Why the Fed sat tight The macro backdrop the FOMC pointed to is genuinely awkward. Brent crude has been pinned above $100 a barrel for most of April as ships continue to struggle to transit the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which roughly 20% of seaborne oil flows. The US national average gas price hit $4.22 a gallon