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The crypto market needs a driver or several to move prices higher, and over the last few days it really hasn't gotten any.

In the crypto world, very often when the leader goes in a particular direction, the followers copy the move. With its leader dipping in price lately, the values of many altcoins also headed south in recent days.

Numerous altcoins were down notably week to date as of Friday early morning, some at double-digit-percentage rates. According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, for example, meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB -4.29%) was off nearly 9% and Mantle (CRYPTO:MNT) was floating 10% lower. Doing somewhat better but still in the red was Toncoin (TON -2.21%), with a relatively modest 0.4% decline.

The market leader I'm talking about is, naturally, Bitcoin. On Monday the bellwether crypto started to slide in price, and the following day it fell under $60,000. As of this writing, it is still there, although the price has improved at least marginally. Whenever Bitcoin crosses above or below a handy round number like $60,000, investors in altcoins tend to buy into or sell out of such assets, depending on the direction of travel.

This started to occur just prior to the Federal Reserve's latest Open Market Committee meeting, so it's little wonder the market was nervous. The latest consensus among Fed officials is that it's prudent not to cut interest rates, in the wake of recent worse-than-expected inflation readings. There was hope among holders of risky assets, such as cryptocurrencies, that the previously stated goal of slashing rates would be realized if inflation was declining.

In holding rates steady on Wednesday, Fed chair Jerome Powell stated that more time would be needed for the regulator to feel confident about rate cuts. That took the wind out of the sails of more than a few crypto investors.

With such moves now looking more like a distant dream, there was little other news of substance to move coins and tokens higher in price -- this is a market that tends to trade robustly (and thus move prices substantially) when big news is occurring. There weren't any such big-headline items over the few days, so some people traded out of cryptos and into other promising assets.

Investors shouldn't get too fixated on interest rate cuts, though.

Ultimately the strength of any cryptocurrency is what it's perceived to bring to the table as -- for instance -- a store of value (Bitcoin), utility as a digital asset affiliated with a popular social media site (Toncoin), or fun meme coin anchoring a blockchain its developers are trying to turn into a robust and functional ecosystem (Shiba Inu). Believers in the missions of these cryptos, then, might do well to stay the course.

Eric Volkman has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool recommends TON. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Why Altcoin Prices Were Sagging This Week - The Motley Fool