Prices for cryptocurrencies continue to weaken as markets await the latest decision on interest rates from the U.S. Federal Reserve on Oct. 28.
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest crypto by market capitalization, is trading at $79,700 U.S. early on Oct. 27.
Ethereum (ETH) is also down and trading at $2,310 U.S. per token amid a broad-based slump in digital assets.
The continued slide in cryptocurrencies come as markets await the U.S. central bank’s latest move on interest rates.
Futures traders are pricing in a 93% chance that the Fed holds interest rates steady at its October meeting, leaving the federal funds rate at its current target range of 3.75% to 4%.
However, traders and economists overwhelmingly expect the Federal Reserve to implement a rate hike at its December meeting as inflation in the U.S. remains stubbornly high.
Higher interest rates are a negative for risk assets such as cryptocurrencies.
Also exerting downward pressure on Bitcoin and other digital assets is a return of capital to artificial intelligence (A.I.) stocks.
Stocks associated with A.I. got a boost on Oct. 26 after startup company Anthropic filed to hold its initial public offering (IPO) before the end of this year.
Anthropic is expected to raise $100 billion U.S. at a valuation that could reach $2 trillion U.S., potentially making it the biggest IPO in Wall Street history.
At the same time, Anthropic is the first of the so called “frontier A.I. labs” to go public, generating excitement among investors.
Anthropic is expected to go public on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol “ANT” by the end of November.
Bitcoin’s price has declined 6% over the past month after rising more than 40% in the year’s third quarter.
