Bitcoin and Ether Set for August Showdown as Fed Decision Looms
Bitcoin (BTC) ended July up roughly 7% from the previous month, but it wasn't the best performer among the majors. Ether (ETH), on the other hand, climbed nearly 20%, pushing the ETH/BTC ratio to 0.030, its highest level since April.
The Federal Reserve's July FOMC meeting delivered a widely expected outcome, with rates held steady at 3.50% to 3.75%. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's post-meeting statement again withheld forward guidance, leaving markets in the dark on September's likely path.
A proposed one-year soft fork, BIP-110, approaches its mandatory signaling window in August, which could temporarily restrict non-financial data from Bitcoin transactions. However, major mining pools have shown little movement toward supporting it, and Michael Saylor has called it 'a bad idea.'