Powell’s ‘dovish’ comments trigger crypto market cap climb to above $4 trillion

The crypto market rallied more than 4% to reclaim the $4 trillion mark after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled that US interest rates could be lowered in September.

In his speech at the Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming, Powell said:

“The baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance.”

Following the speech, the odds of the Federal Reserve cutting its interest rate spiked to around 90%, according to data from the CME Fedwatch tool.

Thomas Lee, Chief Investment Officer at Fundstrat, described Powell’s tone as dovish and said the shift would likely support small-cap stocks and major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Ethereum leads market rally

As a result, Bitcoin’s price jumped more than 3% within the last 24 hours, climbing to roughly $117,000 as of press time, according to data from CryptoSlate.

Other leading tokens, including Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin, followed BTC’s lead and advanced more than 7% within the same time frame. ETH is trading at more than $4650 as of press time.

Meanwhile, the traditional markets also reportedly rallied. The S&P 500, the Nasdaq Composite, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by around 2% each on the news.

At the same time, the US dollar weakened against gold and other major assets, reflecting investors’ anticipation of easier monetary conditions.

Leveraged traders face $553 million losses

The rally inflicted significant damage on leveraged traders positioned against crypto prices.

Data from Coinglass shows that more than $553 million in positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours. Short sellers accounted for most of the wipeouts, losing $308 million, while long positions shed about $325 million.

Ethereum saw the largest share of liquidations, with $251 million erased. Bitcoin followed with $102 million, while XRP and Solana posted losses of $17 million and $30 million, respectively.

The scale of these liquidations reflects how tightly crypto markets remain linked to US monetary policy.

If the Fed proceeds with a rate cut in September, liquidity could expand further, strengthening the case for risk assets and extending the current momentum.

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