Bitcoin and most altcoins traded sideways on Aug. 19 as traders await this week’s Federal Reserve meeting minutes and the start of the Jackson Hole Symposium.
Monero, Polkadot and Polygon rise
Monero (XMR), the largest privacy coin, was one of the best performers, rising for the third consecutive day to hit $156, its highest price since August 14. The increase comes as Binance prepares to convert all XMR tokens in its ecosystem to Tether (USDT) as part of its delisting process.
Polkadot (DOT) and Polygon (MATIC) also ranked among the top gainers, rising for the fourth consecutive day. Polygon's rise is linked to the planned conversion of the MATIC token to POL on September 2. Initially, POL will act as the native gas and staking token and will later play a key role in AggLayer.
The Polkadot gathering coincided with the start of Berlin’s Web3 Summit, a key event for the ecosystem featuring more than 60 speakers.
The crypto industry has recently underperformed compared to the stock market, mainly due to the lack of a clear scenario: important events such as the approval of exchange-traded funds and the Bitcoin (BTC) halving have already occurred, leaving the market in a slump.
FOMC Minutes and Jackson Hole Symposium
A potential catalyst for these tokens could be the Federal Reserve, which could start cutting interest rates as early as September. The Fed is scheduled to release minutes from its July meeting on Wednesday, which could provide more information about its committee deliberations.
But the most important central banking event is the annual Jackson Hole Symposium in Wyoming, where Federal Reserve officials, global central bank governors and economists meet to discuss economic issues.
With the Federal Reserve not meeting in August, the symposium will be an opportunity for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to signal whether the bank will cut interest rates in September. Historically, assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies have shown volatility during this meeting.
But this time, the move could be more moderate, with many economists expecting the Fed to cut rates by a quarter percentage point. The Fed is particularly concerned about the labor market, which has shown signs of weakening, with the unemployment rate rising to 4.3% in July and wage growth slowing to 3.4%.
Recently, cryptocurrencies have responded moderately to the Fed’s actions. For example, Bitcoin fell just 2% after the Fed’s last decision on July 31. Prior to that, it fell 3% after the June meeting.
