FOMC rate cuts loom: Altcoins lose $50B, but Bitcoin eyes $130K

Key Points

1. Top altcoins and memecoins dropped 3%-10% in a pre-FOMC meeting risk-off move, with Bitcoin briefly dipping to $116.95k before recovering to $118k.

2. The altcoin market lost $50 billion in 48 hours, declining from $1.57 trillion to $1.52 trillion, with notable losses in Bonk (10%), Pepe (4%), and Dogecoin (3%).

3. Open Interest (OI) in top altcoins (ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE) shrank from $42.5 billion to $41 billion, with Ripple's XRP losing over $2B in OI in seven days.

4. Analyst Matt Mena suggests that soft inflation data (PCE) and a substantive White House crypto report could trigger a Bitcoin rally, potentially pushing BTC to $130K and beyond.

5. The market sees a 61.6% chance of a 25 bps rate cut in September, with odds of two cuts by year-end at 42.9%, which could further fuel crypto market movements.