The Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Powell attended the Senate Banking Committee hearing on the semi-annual monetary policy report last night, and his remarks were slightly hawkish during the hearing, emphasizing that the current US economy remains strong, the Fed is in no rush to continue cutting interest rates, and that monetary easing (QE) will be used when interest rates are close to 0%.
It was expected that Powell's remarks on not cutting interest rates would cause the cryptocurrency market to experience violent fluctuations, but the market reaction was surprisingly calm, with no significant gains or losses.
Analyst: The lack of a major Altcoin market crash may be a sign of a bottom
In this regard, cryptocurrency analyst Matthew Hyland tweeted this (12) morning that the reason the Altcoin market did not decline is that the market may have already digested the news and sold off in advance:
Cryptocurrencies are facing the worst news in 2025, but Altcoins have hardly fallen, and some are even rising. Why?
- Selling pressure has been exhausted
- The market is forward-looking, and the market may have already sniffed out this news, so there was a selloff a week ago
Matthew Hyland added that since there was no large-scale selloff, the possibility of the market hitting a bottom is high:
If you told anyone yesterday that Powell would not announce the restart of QE until interest rates are near zero, most people would expect the market to crash again, retesting the lows or even making new lows
But that didn't happen, the bottom has been confirmed
Can QE save the Altcoin season?
We know that government interest rate cuts and quantitative easing (QE) policies can help boost market liquidity. However, Powell publicly stated that QE will only be used when interest rates are close to 0%, which seems to be even further away from the "era of abundant liquidity" that investors are hoping for.
In this regard, the community has started to discuss whether the delay in QE will damage the Altcoin season, and cryptocurrency trader Fejau also tweeted in the early morning to wake up investors who are still hoping for the Altcoin season, advising them not to fantasize that QE can save their over-leveraged Altcoin positions:
For those who are fantasizing about the imminent arrival of QE, I hope you just heard what Powell said: "QE is a tool we will only use when interest rates have already fallen to zero." You don't want zero interest rates and QE, because that means you'll go through a lot of pain in the meantime. QE won't come to the rescue of your over-leveraged Altcoin positions anytime soon.
Messari co-founder Dan McArdle also came forward to say:
Honestly, a healthy economy and some credit expansion is already enough to support a moderate risk appetite environment.
People are just habitually linking everything to zero interest rates (ZIRP) and QE due to recent biases.
