Fed Rate Decision Today, Vanity Fair Piece Drama, Aster Announces Aster Chain

Crypto majors are slightly red ahead of today’s FOMC; BTC -0.3% at $73.8k; ETH -1% at $2,306; SOL even at $94. KAS (+11%), RIVER (+7%), and MORPHO (+7%) led top movers. Oil is down slightly at $95; GOLD -1% at $4,900. Mastercard agreed to acquire stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, the deal Coinbase walked away from last year. Citigroup slashed its 12-month Bitcoin target to $112K and Ethereum to $3,175, citing a narrowing window for the Clarity Act and weaker-than-expected ETF inflow assumptions. PayPal expanded PYUSD to 70 markets as the stablecoin’s market cap crossed $4 billion for the first time. XRP flipped BNB to reclaim the #4 spot by market cap as Ripple announced a VASP license application in Brazil. A poorly timed crypto feature from Vanity Fair raised questions about the mainstream crypto image.