Bitcoin is currently stable around $80,000, with traders focusing on Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Walsh’s keynote speech at the Jackson Hole annual meeting. The annual seminar hosted by the Kansas City Fed opened on Wednesday, and Walsh will speak on Friday morning. Current inflation remains well above the Fed’s 2% target, with long-term borrowing costs near multi-year highs, and the Fed has maintained the benchmark interest rate range at 3.5%-3.75% in recent months.

Mark Connors, Chief Investment Officer of Risk Dimensions, expects that Walsh will keep the option of raising interest rates but will not do so before the midterm elections. The July PCE inflation rate reached 3.7%, partly driven by rising energy prices following the Iran war. Samir Kerbage, Chief Investment Officer of Hashdex, stated that Bitcoin does not directly respond to the September interest rate decision but follows global liquidity and long-end yield curve trends, similar to the drivers of gold. Last week, the U.S. Treasury announced an increase in long-term Treasury bond purchases after the 30-year Treasury yield hit a 19-year high, which pushed Bitcoin higher; Kerbage described this rally as a “liquidity event.”

This year’s Jackson Hole meeting focuses on financial innovation, payments, and policy, with stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and faster settlement systems becoming the discussion highlights. Kerbage believes that if Walsh views these technologies as part of the financial system rather than risks to be curtailed, their impact could extend beyond Bitcoin, with smart contract networks and protocols handling tokenized payments and settlements benefiting more directly from this shift.