Memecoins Get Hit

Crypto took a hit today as it braced for tomorrow’s key U.S. inflation report and Federal Reserve meeting. Memecoins were hit particularly hard.

What's the scoop?

• Majors: Bitcoin began the day near $70K but dipped to a three-week low of $66,170 before recovering to mid-67K, while ETH dropped below $3.5K.
• Alts Take Largest Hits: As always, altcoins experienced even deeper pullbacks, with dog coins like WIF and FLOKI dropping around 10% and large-cap AI coins like RNDR and TAO slipping 5-7%.
• Liquidations: The sudden pullback led to over $250M in liquidations of leveraged positions following Friday's $400M liquidations.
• Investor De-Risking: Investors look to be de-risking ahead of tomorrow's May Consumer Price Index (CPI) report and the Federal Reserve meeting.

Bankless Take:

While dips ahead of FOMC meetings look to have become a normal market event this year, so have rebounds after the meetings. With interest rates expected to be kept the same, a decision in line with this could make traders exhale. That being said, if key inflation rate numbers paint a more dire picture, the Fed could push out its timelines for rate cuts, even with global central banks taking the opposite approach.