Federal Reserve Keeps Rates Unchanged, Adds Qualitative Guidance on Pace of Money-Printing

The Federal Reserve said Thursday said it would hold U.S. interest rates at their current level, close to zero, and added qualitative criteria to govern how long it will keep up its $120-a-month bond-buying program.

“Economic activity and employment have continued to recover but remain well below their levels at the beginning of the year,” according to a statement released at the conclusion of this week’s two-day, closed-door meeting of the central bank’s monetary-policy committee, known as the Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC.

Traders in digital-asset markets have tracked the Fed’s decisions this year because many analysts say the U.S. central bank’s trillions of dollars of money printing could bolster use of bitcoin among institutional investors as an an inflation hedge.