Bitcoin fell to around $24,990 on Wednesday as investors shrugged off widespread expectations that the U.S. central bank would pause its more than year-long run of rate hikes. Major altcoins plunged in the late afternoon, falling into negative territory.

The largest cryptocurrency by market value recently fell 3.3% in the past 24 hours to its lowest level since mid-March. Bitcoin's price has largely hovered around $26,000 for most of the past five days as investors weighed the initial impact of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) lawsuit against crypto trading giants Binance and Coinbase, the Federal Reserve's monetary policy signals and other macroeconomic uncertainties.

The June Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting did not raise interest rates for the first time since March 2022, but Fed Chairman Powell said at least two more rate hikes are expected before the end of the year, which put pressure on the stock market and the major stock indexes closed mixed.

“The Fed kept rates unchanged, as expected given the macroeconomic situation,” Joe DiPasquale, CEO of crypto asset manager BitBull Capital, wrote in a note to CoinDesk. “The initial move was to the downside as the Fed indicated that this pause might not last.”

“From a market perspective, as long as Bitcoin holds $25,000, we should continue to see consolidation,” DiPasquale added.

“The bears may have the upper hand now,” said FXPro analyst Alex Kuptsikevich. “If so, the decline could accelerate to $25,700 and directly to $24,800.”

Ethereum recently traded at $1,650, down 5.1% from the same time on Tuesday and also hitting a three-month low. Other major cryptocurrencies mentioned in the SEC action have recently plummeted, with Cardano blockchain's token ADA recently falling more than 5%, and Solana and Polygon smart contract network's native cryptocurrencies SOL and MATIC both falling more than 4%. The CoinDesk Market Index, which measures the overall performance of the crypto market, has recently moved sideways. The CoinDesk Bitcoin and Ethereum Trend Indicators remain in downtrend territory, reflecting continued investor uneasiness.

However, indicators are still bullish. A price pattern known as a "pullback" has emerged on Bitcoin's daily chart, which could provide bulls with momentum to push Bitcoin up to $37,000, according to Valkyrie Investments. In technical analysis, a pullback is when prices fall to a previous breakout level or resistance-turned-support level. After a breakout, prices bounce for a few days before losing upward momentum and returning to the breakout point. Typically, prices surge after a pullback is complete, Thomas Bulkowski detailed in his book, A Visual Guide to Chart Patterns.

Meanwhile, major U.S. stock indexes fell as investors worried that the current pause in rate hikes would be temporary as the Federal Reserve focuses on bringing inflation down to its long-term goal of 2.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 rose slightly, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7%.

Still, in an email to CoinDesk, Markus Levin, co-founder of blockchain geospatial oracle system XYO Network, struck an optimistic note, writing that “the global macro landscape is changing significantly,” and that “the pause in rate hikes is the clearest sign of this shift. Inflation is falling rapidly. Central banks around the world are injecting liquidity to stimulate their economies. The focus now is on economic growth and whether we will indeed experience a broad and deep recession.”

Levin added that Bitcoin and other digital assets “may have hit bottom.”

“I expect Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to trade sideways for the next few months, punctuated by bouts of volatility,” he wrote. “However, when the Bitcoin halving happens next year, I think we’ll be off to the races.”