Bitcoin, ether, other major cryptos outpace stocks ahead of Fed decision day

Bitcoin (BTC-USD), ethereum (ETH-USD) and a large basket of cryptocurrencies are catching a bid in Wednesday afternoon trading ahead of the Federal Reserve's much-awaited interest rate decision. Looking at intraday price action, bitcoin (BTC-USD +2.7%) is rising to $39.1K and ether (ETH-USD +1.7%) is drifting up to $2.85K. Both cryptos still remain rangebound since the start of 2022 and trade well below record highs in Nov. 2021. Meanwhile, U.S. stocks are trading mixed with the Dow Jones (DJI) +0.3%, S&P 500 (SP500) +0.1% and tech-heavy Nasdaq (COMP.IND) -0.3%. “Everything in crypto, I think, is more muted right now,” Antonio Juliano, founder and chief executive of dYdX, a decentralized trading platform, told Bloomberg. Cryptos' underwhelming performance since the start of this year comes as the Fed pivots to tighter monetary policy. At today's meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's policymaking arm, is expected to hike the interbank lending rate by 50 basis points