The cryptocurrency market whipsawed over the weekend after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh struck a hawkish tone during his first Jackson Hole speech, triggering a sharp but short-lived selloff that pushed Bitcoin below the $77,000 mark before buyers stepped in.
Bitcoin's mid-August rally had taken it from under $65,000 on August 19 to roughly $80,000 within 48 hours. After facing resistance near $80,000, it slipped to $75,500 during the previous weekend. Bulls regained control during the business week, pushing BTC to $81,000 on Tuesday and then to a 15-week high of $81,500 on Thursday and Friday morning.
However, the hawkish remarks from Warsh at Jackson Hole halted the advance. Bitcoin dropped below $77,000 within about an hour of the speech. By Sunday, the asset had recovered to around $78,150, adding roughly $15 billion to its market capitalization, which reached $1.570 trillion. Bitcoin dominance climbed to 58%.
Ethereum remained below the key $2,500 resistance, trading near $2,450 after earlier being rejected at that level and dipping to $2,430. BNB stayed below $700, while XRP fell from about $1.45 to $1.38 and continued struggling to reclaim $1.40. Other major altcoins such as SOL, DOGE, LINK, XLM and HYPE posted similar losses during the initial dip, while BCH slumped more than 7% to under $250.
Notable exceptions included Uniswap's UNI, which surged 11% to $4.90, and ZEC, which rose 3.5% to $830. Pi Network's PI slipped below its critical $0.09 support on Friday but defended the level and was trading above $0.091 by Sunday. The total crypto market capitalization fell by about $80 billion after the Fed-driven dip to $2.720 trillion before rebounding to roughly $2.740 trillion on Sunday.
