Analyst: If the Federal Reserve maintains interest rates unchanged in Q1 2026, Bitcoin may fall to $70,000

On December 25, according to Cointelegraph, BTSE Chief Operating Officer Jeff Mei stated that if the Federal Reserve maintains interest rates unchanged in the first quarter of 2026, Bitcoin could fall to $70,000, and Ethereum could drop to $2,400. However, the Federal Reserve ended quantitative tightening (QT) on December 1 and launched the “Reserve Management Purchases” (RMPs) program, purchasing about $40 billion in short-term government bonds each month, which some analysts view as “hidden quantitative easing (QE).” If RMPs continue into the first quarter of 2026, they could inject liquidity and support risk asset prices. Jeff Mei predicts that Bitcoin could rise to $92,000 to $98,000, and Ethereum may benefit from L2 scaling improvements and increased DeFi attractiveness, rising to $3,600. Additionally, over $50 billion in ETF capital inflows and institutional accumulation will further drive the market higher.