Bitcoin Slips Toward $80,000 After Fed Hold as Ripple Pitches XRP at Swell in New York

Fed Holds Rates but Leans Hawkish

At its October meeting, the Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate steady, as markets had widely expected. The 10-2 vote, however, revealed a more hawkish committee: two policymakers preferred a 25-basis-point rate hike. Treasury yields briefly jumped after the decision, with the 10-year yield moving back above 5%. According to CME FedWatch, the market-implied probability of a December hike rose to about 80%, up from roughly 73% a week earlier.

Bitcoin and Major Altcoins Give Back Early Gains

Crypto's first reaction to the Fed was a brief rebound, but it faded quickly. Bitcoin dipped toward $80,000 after trading above $81,000 earlier in the week, while Ethereum slipped to around $2,300. XRP underperformed, falling about 3% over 24 hours to roughly $1.29. Higher yields raise the opportunity cost of holding speculative assets, and mixed earnings from large U.S. technology companies added to the cautious tone. Traders are watching the $79,000 to $80,000 zone as support and the $81,000 to $81,700 area as resistance.

Ripple Makes an Institutional Case at Swell

Away from the price charts, Ripple is hosting Swell from October 27 to 29 at The Shed in Hudson Yards, Manhattan. This year's event marks the conference's tenth anniversary and, for the first time, combines Swell with the XRP Ledger developer summit Apex. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse called 2026 a phenomenal year for the company, pointing to strong growth in transaction volumes. He also repeated his view that XRP could become an institutional gold standard for crypto payment rails.

Why the Two Stories Matter Together

The Fed's stance shows that macro conditions still set the short-term direction for digital assets: when rate-hike expectations rise, risk appetite usually cools. Ripple's push, on the other hand, reflects a longer-term trend of crypto firms courting banks, asset managers and payment providers in the United States. Strong adoption news has not been enough to offset the pressure from yields so far, as XRP's decline on the same day shows.

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