CoinMarketCap News, July 28: Fed Chairman Hints Interest Rate Hikes Could Slow Down Soon

The Federal Reserve has increased its base interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point for the second time in a row. Bitcoin accelerated to $23,300 in the hours after the announcement was made — the Nasdaq closed up 4.2%. Some analysts had feared the Fed would hike rates by a full percentage point in its quest to tackle inflation. The U.S. central bank has warned further increases may be needed in the months ahead, but there are fears this could spark a recession. Debate is already raging as to whether the Fed would embark on another drastic 0.75 percentage point increase in September, or opt for a smaller rise. The target rate for inflation is 2%, but the Consumer Price Index hit a whopping 9.1% in June.

Michael Saylor has criticized Ether and Bitcoin Cash  — questioning whether both assets are economically, technically or ethically sound. MicroStrategy's CEO pointed to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who said that the blockchain is about 40% done. As an institutional investor, Saylor said he would need to wait until the protocol is complete before making a decision on its value — but Ethereum may not be complete or stable for three years. And while Ethereum's monetary policy could change over the next three years, Saylor said Bitcoin's monetary policy has been decided for the next 1,000 years. He also warned big upgrades introduce new attack surfaces. Saylor later dismissed Bitcoin Cash as a "horrific mistake" and a "failure."

Harmony is facing a backlash as it tries to recover from the $100 million hack of the Horizon Bridge. The blockchain project says it's determined to make victims whole — and estimates suggest 65,000 wallets were affected by the attack. One option involves minting 4.97 billion new ONE tokens, which would be gradually brought into circulation over a three-year period. But some investors have accused Harmony of "printing more tokens out of thin air" — and say they shouldn't be expected to pay victims. Such a dramatic increase of ONE's supply could ramp up inflationary pressure and affect prices in the long term. A vote is due to take place between August 1 and 15, but Harmony's team are being urged to consider other options.

Unstoppable Domains has achieved "unicorn" status in its latest funding round, and now commands a valuation of $1 billion. The company has raised $65 million and plans to use the cash "to fuel product innovation and grow partnerships in the Web3 space." Unstoppable offers NFT domains — a human-readable username that can be used as a website URL and as a payment address for wallets. Figures suggest that more than 2.5 million of these domains have been registered so far, and now, they can be used to log into more than 150 Web3 applications. Unstoppable's CEO, Matthew Gould, says tech giants have controlled people's digital identities for too long — and its offering helps put power back in the hands of the people.