Global Markets Eagerly Await FOMC Decision

Today is set up for huge volatility, as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meet to announce their decision on how much they will raise rates. This event has led most investors to sell equities and crypto over the past month, as they fear a 50-basis point rate hike, which seems highly likely. The market is predicting a 97.4% chance of a 50-basis point hike, so I think this event could be priced in. At the last FOMC meeting in March, we had sell pressure leading up to the day of the meeting before a multi-week rally. Although hiking rates is generally bad in these conditions for risk-on assets, U.S. consumer data is strong at the moment, so I remain optimistic that the result of this hike will not be catastrophic and that this FOMC meeting has been priced in. The FOMC will announce its latest policy statement at 2 pm ET.

Global asset management firm Vaneck is entering the NFT space by releasing 1,000 NFTs this week. Vaneck, who has $85 billion of assets under management said, “we’ve designed the Vaneck Community NFT to function like a digital membership card.” This is the first NFT offered by a global asset manager, and I think it is a great step towards educating the mainstream about the real-world utility inherent in the NFT structure. An executive at Wisdomtree, an asset management firm with $78 billion under management, says that “cryptocurrencies have firmly established themselves as a new asset class and it truly is something that people can’t ignore.” The fact that major financial institutions like Wisdomtree are recommending risk-assessed allocations to the crypto space is a very bullish sign for the industry.