Fed Chair Warsh's Jackson Hole inflation warning sends Bitcoin below $78K

The day's story begins and ends in Wyoming. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, speaking at the Jackson Hole economic symposium, told the audience that the central bank still has 'work to do' on inflation — language that markets read as a signal that rate cuts are not imminent. Crypto, which had been trading near recent highs, sold off immediately. Bitcoin fell 2.42% to $77,579, Ethereum dropped 2.59% to $2,435.50, and BNB and XRP each shed roughly 2.3%. The Fear & Greed index sits at 68, still in 'Greed' territory, but the day's move reflects a meaningful cooling of the optimism that had built up over recent weeks. When the Fed signals it will keep borrowing costs elevated for longer, risk assets — stocks, crypto, commodities — tend to reprice lower, because higher rates make safer alternatives like Treasury bonds more attractive by comparison. Crypto is particularly sensitive to this dynamic given its lack of yield and high volatility profile. Bitcoin Cash bore the brunt of the selloff, falling 7.6%. BCH trades on thinner volume than Bitcoin, which means that when sellers step in during a macro-driven move, there are fewer buyers to absorb the pressure and prices drop further and faster. No BCH-specific news drove the move — it was a liquidity story layered on top of a macro one. Solana was the relative standout, falling only 1.36% despite the broader pressure. That resilience likely reflects two concurrent pieces of positive news: the Bitwise Solana ETF crossing $1 billion in assets under management, and a closely contested governance vote that passed to accelerate the reduction of new SOL issuance over time. Both developments point to growing institutional and community conviction in the network, even if neither was enough to push SOL higher on a day when the macro backdrop dominated. LEO Token was the day's lone meaningful gainer among tracked assets, rising 2.23%. Exchange tokens sometimes attract capital during broad selloffs as traders consolidate activity onto familiar platforms — LEO's parent company iFinex has also been active on the corporate front, which may have contributed to the relative strength.

• –Charles Schwab expanded its retail crypto offering beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, deepening mainstream brokerage access to digital assets.
• –The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Kalshi in a Nevada sports betting dispute, affirming state authority over prediction markets and creating regulatory uncertainty for crypto-adjacent platforms that had relied on CFTC's claimed exclusive jurisdiction.
• –Solana's governance community passed a proposal to double the rate of SOL emission reduction — a supply-side change that reduces the pace at which new SOL enters circulation — though the vote was extremely close.