What's Next for Crypto? Fed Meeting, Inflation Data to Shape Markets

The cryptocurrency market is bracing for a significant week as investors anticipate the Federal Reserve's next meeting and key inflation data. The markets are bracing for a busy week as the Fed prepares to make its next monetary policy decision at its January meeting on Wednesday.

However, traders are pricing in a more than 99% chance that the Fed might keep interest rates steady, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. At its December meeting, the Fed projected only two interest rate reductions in 2025.

Along with the Fed meeting, the release of new inflation data will be widely monitored. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a key measure of inflation and provides insights into consumers' purchasing power.

On Friday, investors will await the release of the personal consumption expenditures price index for December, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, which will provide new insights into the health of the United States economy.

Crypto market dips

Bitcoin fell below $99,000 early Monday as traders took profits ahead of this year's first Federal Open Market Committee meeting in the U.S. Bitcoin tracked losses in U.S. stock futures, which declined as traders processed information about the cost and capabilities of China-based DeepSeek, undermining OpenAI's otherwise pricey narrative.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down 5.65% in the last 24 hours to $98,812.

Solana's SOL and Dogecoin (DOGE) sank over 12%, leading losses among majors, while Ethereum (ETH), BNB, XRP and Cardano's ADA lost up to 11%.

Tokens outside the top 20and across sectors suffered comparable losses, with PEPE, SHIB, BONK, dogfight, IOTA, Chainlink and Floki showing losses ranging from 12% to 18%.

According to CoinGlass data, the downward move resulted in $860 million in liquidations over the last day, marking an increase of 585%. Bullish wagers on rising cryptocurrency prices lost $794 million as several cryptocurrencies slowed in a negative start to the week.