Bitcoin fell ahead of a widely expected interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve later this week, as markets eye the impending shift in monetary policy.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest digital asset, fell about 2.6% on Monday, while smaller cryptocurrencies, from the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum to the most popular meme coin Dogecoin, struggled to recoup their losses.
The first U.S. rate cut in more than four years signals the beginning of an easing of financial conditions, which typically boosts riskier assets such as cryptocurrencies. But investors are still uncertain about the magnitude of the cut expected on Wednesday, and how markets will react to Fed officials’ updated forecasts — the so-called dot plot — and Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference.
