The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to 3.75%-4%, its first increase since July 2023, as Chair Kevin Warsh said underlying inflation had not been moving clearly and quickly enough toward the central bank’s objective. Bitcoin fell below $76,000 after the decision before trading at $76,611 on Thursday afternoon, up 1.2% over 24 hours. Spot bitcoin ETFs (funds holding bitcoin directly) recorded combined net outflows of $746.3 million across Tuesday and Wednesday, including their largest single-day withdrawal since June 24. Ether ETFs lost another $224.1 million on Wednesday. The withdrawals came after August inflows and do not erase roughly $54.6 billion in net inflows since the products launched in January 2024, but analysts have warned that ETF demand no longer guarantees a bitcoin rally. The Federal Reserve’s projections point to a 4.1% year-end rate, while prediction markets assigned a 67.5% probability to a December hike. Whether this week’s redemptions represent a brief reaction or the beginning of a broader cycle is expected to become clearer in Farside Investors’ data by Monday.