Crypto Markets Eye August as Fed Decision Looms

Bitcoin's (BTC) performance in July was muted compared to stocks after the Federal Reserve's FOMC meeting delivered a widely expected outcome. The FOMC voted 9-3 to hold rates steady at 3.50% to 3.75%, leaving markets largely in the dark on September's likely path.

The next FOMC meeting falls on September 15 to 16, but Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole speech on August 27 to 29 is the more immediate event to watch for any shift in tone.

In the Bitcoin network, a proposed one-year soft fork called BIP-110 that would temporarily restrict non-financial data from transactions approaches its mandatory signaling window in early August. Major mining pools have shown little movement toward supporting it, and Michael Saylor has called it 'a bad idea'. Activation still appears unlikely given the low signaling.

On the other hand, Ether (ETH) was the standout performer among majors in July, climbing nearly 20% against BTC's roughly 7%. The ETH/BTC ratio reached its highest level since April at 0.030. In August, Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade is expected to bring significant changes to the network.