Fed's Jerome Powell made an insightful comment; Here's how the crypto market reacts

In a speech on Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank is currently in wait-and-see mode before making any further interest rate adjustments. Powell stated at a policy forum in New York that the Fed is "focused on separating signals from noise as the outlook changes. We don't need to rush and are in a good position to wait for more clarity." Here, he reiterated recent statements in which he and his colleagues called for patience with monetary policy in the face of growing uncertainty. These statements appear to contradict the market's growing expectations for a rate cut this year. According to CME Group's FedWatch index, traders have priced in the equivalent of a three-quarters of a percentage point decline by the end of the year, starting in June. However, Powell's words suggest that the Fed will wait and see before deciding to ease policy further. The Fed chairman's comments came on the same day the Labor Department announced an increase of 151,000 jobs in the non-farm sector in February, slightly lower than market estimates. Crypto Markets Reacted The crypto market is falling as traders consider the latest comments by the Fed on interest rate cuts. In the last 24 hours, the crypto market has seen $493 million liquidated, according to CoinGlass data. The long-awaited crypto summit on Friday ended in disappointment rather than echo for crypto traders, as altcoins such as XRP, Cardano's ADA, and Solana's SOL fell more than market leader Bitcoin (BTC). XRP has fallen 8.11% in the last 24 hours to $2.33, down from a high of $2.98 earlier this week – down nearly 20% from Sunday's peak following the initial announcement of crypto reserves. Cardano's ADA lost more than 8%, while Solana's SOL fell 4% to $138 in early trading on Saturday. Other altcoins, such as SUI, HBAR, Raydium, and Jito, suffered losses ranging from 9% to 12%, while most of the top 100 coins, with the exception of a handful of assets, fell in price daily. In contrast, Bitcoin performed better, trading at $85,950, down 3.38% in the previous 24 hours, suggesting a significant resilience from the altcoin market's sell-off.