Will the Fed Raise Rates on September 16? Polymarket Now Says 83%. Here’s What It Means for XRP and Bitcoin
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Traders on Polymarket price a 25 basis point hike at the September 15 to 16 FOMC meeting at 83%, with a hold at 18%, up from about 30% before Jackson Hole and about 50% before the August CPI release on September 11, 2026. Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) trades at $77,293.66, and XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) trades at $1.37 as of September 12, 2026.
A hike on September 16 would be the first since 2023, and Bitcoin has never tracked interest rates as closely as it does now. So a Fed move reaches crypto faster this week than it would have in any earlier cycle. How would a September 16 hike reach XRP and Bitcoin?
Hike Odds Went From 30% to 83% in Three Weeks
Polymarket priced the September hike at roughly 30% before the Jackson Hole symposium, about 50% before the August CPI release, and 83% after it. The third step is the biggest.
Core CPI, which is the consumer price index with food and energy stripped out because those two swing hardest month to month, rose 0.3% in August 2026 against 0.2% expected, while the headline figure matched estimates. A hotter core print tells the Fed underlying price pressure hasn’t cooled, so it undercuts the argument for standing still through the rest of the year.
Barclays reversed its forecast on August 31, 2026 and now calls for consecutive 25 basis point hikes. Prediction markets moved the same way, with September hike odds roughly doubling over the past month across every venue that prices them.
A Hike Would Be the First Since 2023
Chair Kevin Warsh’s Fed has held rates at five straight meetings with no cuts in 2026. The federal funds upper bound reads 3.75% and has been unchanged since December 2025, after a step down from 4.5% in September 2025. A hike on September 16 would end that run.
A basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point, so 25 basis points is a quarter point. When the Fed raises its policy rate, Treasury yields typically rise with it, and when a government bond pays close to 5%, some savers move money out of assets that pay nothing, which is what crypto pays.
The 10-year Treasury yielded 4.95% on September 10, 2026, up 0.12 percentage points on the day and 0.25 from a month earlier, its highest in a year. Bonds are trading the hike before it happens, so financial conditions are already tightening across every risk asset heading into September 16.
Bitcoin Has Never Tracked Interest Rates This Closely
Bitcoin now moves with bonds and growth stocks more closely than at any point on record, so a Fed surprise reaches it faster than it did in earlier cycles. Bitcoin trades at $77,293.66 as of September 12, 2026, down 3.26% over the past week and down 33.48% from a year ago. The one-month gain reads 21.77%, but that gain comes off August’s low base and isn’t fresh buying this week.
XRP and Ethereum have historically swung more than Bitcoin on Fed decision days, which is why the headline names two coins. XRP trades at $1.37, down 3.91% this week and down 56.31% over the past year.
XRP doesn’t have the same spot ETF footprint or corporate treasury demand as Bitcoin, so its buyer base skews more toward retail and short-term traders, and its price tends to move more sharply on Fed news in either direction.
What Happens to XRP and Bitcoin on September 16?
The 83% probability implies that a 25-basis-point hike is already priced into both coins, so a delivered hike would likely produce a modest reaction rather than a violent one. Bitcoin has held above $77,000 through this week’s yield jump, and XRP has held above $1.30, so the market has been trading these odds for two weeks. If the statement sounds softer than a quarter-point hike implies, both coins could get a small lift.
The outcome that would move prices is the one Polymarket rates at 18%. A hold would probably lift both coins because it removes the tighter policy already priced in, and a 50 basis point hike would probably hit XRP harder than Bitcoin, since XRP swings wider on Fed days. Polymarket’s answer is probably yes, and if it’s right, the reaction could be smaller than the two-week buildup suggests.
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Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst and the editor of 24/7 Wall St.'s Crypto Desk, where he covers Bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum, Solana and the altcoins investors search for most. His work focuses on price levels, spot ETF flows, on-chain data and the regulatory decisions that move crypto markets, written so a first-time buyer and a seasoned trader can both use it.
Sam has written about crypto professionally since 2019 and has published more than 2,000 articles. Before joining 24/7 Wall St., he wrote for crypto media outlets and Web3 companies and ghostwrote for crypto founders and token launches. His analysis is syndicated on Yahoo Finance, MSN and AOL and has been cited by other crypto news sites. He also founded MacLabs Marketing, a content and personal branding agency for crypto founders and executives.
When he isn't reading charts, Sam is usually at the gym or watching One Piece, a series he maintains has better tokenomics than most altcoins.
