Four Central Banks in Eight Days: Bitcoin Stays Strong

Four monetary policy decisions in eight days. It hasn't been seen in a long time. The ECB kicked things off on September 10 by raising its deposit rate to 2.50%. Eight days later, three other banks followed suit within 72 hours. The Fed raised its rates for the first time since 2023 on Wednesday, to 3.75-4.00%. The Bank of England followed the next day with a status quo, before the Bank of Japan closed the sequence on Friday by raising its key rate to 1.25%, with two dissenters that were enough to temper the market's hawkish reading. The yen fell in the wake, and Bitcoin, which has been fluctuating between $75,000 and $77,000 since Wednesday, is watching all this with a perspective it hasn't had for months.

Key points of this article:

• Four central banks acted synchronously in eight days, a rare and historic event.
• The monetary policy decisions caused significant movements in the markets, particularly for the yen and Bitcoin.

ECB, Fed, BoE, BoJ: The Eight-Day Count

Here’s what to remember from each decision, taken separately:

• The ECB raised its deposit rate to 2.50% on September 10, effective from the 16th, a week before the other three.
• The Fed raised its rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, September 16, to 3.75-4.00%. This was the first increase since 2023, voted unanimously and confirmed by the FOMC statement.
• The Bank of England maintained a status quo on Thursday, September 17, at 3.75%, by 6 votes to 3. Andrew Bailey justified the caution due to the surge in oil prices, as detailed in the Bank of England's minutes.
• The Bank of Japan raised its key rate by 25 basis points on Friday, September 18, to 1.25%, the highest since 1995. The vote was tight at 7 to 2, and the dollar returned to around 157 yen in the hour that followed.

Source: official statements from the ECB, Fed, BoE, and BoJ, September 2026.

Four banks, four schedules, one direction. Global liquidity is tightening, not everywhere at the same speed, but in the same direction.

Yen Carry Trade, Bitcoin ETFs Under Pressure

The detail that matters is not the Fed taken in isolation. It’s the combination of the Fed plus BoJ. The yen carry trade involves an investor borrowing at nearly zero rates in Japan to reinvest the money in higher-yielding assets elsewhere: U.S. stocks, bonds, sometimes Bitcoin. Each Japanese rate hike theoretically increases the cost of this financing and pushes some positions to unwind. Japan had already tested the waters this summer when Tokyo and Washington intervened together on the yen.

On cryptocurrencies, the effect was felt immediately. According to flows compiled by Farside Investors, Bitcoin spot ETFs lost $746 million in the forty-eight hours surrounding the Fed's decision, on Tuesday and Wednesday. BlackRock, the leading manager in the sector, accounts for a significant portion of the outflow. This figure is concentrated over two days, not a hemorrhage that has been spreading for weeks.

Why This Is Not a Repeat of the August 2024 Crash

In August 2024, a surprise hike from the BoJ derailed the markets in a matter of hours. Bitcoin lost nearly 15% in the aftermath. Here, nothing of the sort. The increase had been anticipated for weeks, not improvised in a hurry. Our point from September 14 reminded that a Reuters poll already showed 97% of economists anticipating the hike even before the meeting.

Most importantly, the yen did not replay the panic of 2024. The two dissenters on the BoJ board sufficiently muddled the message so that the dollar returned to 157 yen instead of collapsing further, removing a good part of the pressure that forces the abrupt unwinding of the carry trade. Governor Kazuo Ueda maintained a cautious tone regarding the pace of future hikes during his press conference. The fuse is shorter than it was two years ago. This does not mean it has disappeared.

In the meantime, it is the yen carry trade that will continue to dictate a good part of the flows on Bitcoin ETFs, as it has done this week. The BoJ will not meet for several weeks. The Fed, according to its official schedule, returns to the forefront on October 27 and 28, before a final meeting of the year in December. The Bank of England will also decide again on November 5.

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