Bitcoin Drops 3% Amid Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole Hawkish Speech | News

Currencies38934
Market Cap$ 2.70T-2.93%
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News
Aug 28, 2026
2min read
bySteve Muchoki
forCoinpedia

At Jackson Hole, new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh signaled a hawkish stance, noting PCE inflation at 3.7% year-over-year and 4.1% annualized over six months with unemployment near 4.1%, and reiterated commitment to a 2% target while discouraging forward guidance. Markets turned risk-off: Bitcoin fell 3.23% to $77,812 after pulling back from $80K, Ethereum to $2,420 and XRP to $1.36, dragging crypto market cap down 2.97% and triggering $350.94M in long liquidations across the sector (including $138M for BTC), impacting derivatives and exchange leverage.

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Bitcoin (BTC) and the overall crypto market cap are down 3.23% and 2.97%, respectively, in the past 24 hours after the Fed delivered a hawkish outlook at today’s Jackson Hole event. Ethereum (ETH) and XRP moved in tandem, falling 2.7% and 4.89% over the same time period.

Notably, Jackson Hole is an international conference that hosts various financial players to discuss macroeconomic policy. It provides possible future directions for the US Federal Reserve, which has historically moved markets in either direction.

Today’s event was Kevin Warsh’s first as Fed Chair, and he said the Fed still has work to do on inflation.

Key Fed notes that affected BTC, ETH, and XRP

Warsh began by noting that the economy remains strong and resilient, with unemployment (currently at 4.1%) nearing a multi-decade low.

Nonetheless, PCE inflation remains at 3.7% in the last year, and 4.1% annualized over the past six months, both well above the Fed’s “firm and fixed” target of 2%. Even more, 54% of the components of the PCE basket have risen by 3% in the past year, suggesting inflation is still at large.

According to Warsh, several signs show that the current financial conditions remain non “restrictive.” These include relatively friendly lending standards, liberal credit markets, and tight credit spreads, as seen below.

Future outlook 

Warsh says the Fed is committed to achieving its 2% inflation target, with a “predominant focus on prices.”

“We must be confident that underlying inflation is moving to our objective, clearly and at sufficient speed. Otherwise, we have work to do.”

More importantly, he discouraged the markets from looking to the Fed for forward guidance, saying this strategy has “overstayed its welcome.”

Crypto market reaction

Following the speech, investors assumed a risk-off attitude, causing Bitcoin to pull away from the $80K resistance line to trade at $77,812. Long liquidations also mounted to $138 million of the total $185 million.

ETH and XRP also retreated to trade at $2,420 and $1.36, respectively. Long liquidations for the overall crypto market totaled $350.94 million of the total $467.81 million.

For Bitcoin, the next major resistance lies at $76,996. However, CoinPedia has explored why this retracement was expected and why it presents a premium buy opportunity ahead of the next leg up.

Source: cryptorank.io