The US Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 3.75–4% on September 16. Crypto investors now have to assess how much of the tightening is already reflected in prices and how much more could follow. The cost of getting that distinction wrong is buying into a recovery that depends on rate cuts the Fed has little reason to deliver.

Bitcoin had weakened well before the announcement. It touched $82,163 on 4 September. By the afternoon of 16 September in India, ahead of the Fed decision, it was near $75,743. That was a fall of roughly 8%. Any account that attributes the entire decline to the hike gets the sequence wrong.

Bitcoin was trading around $75,000–$76,000 after the decision. Holding near those levels suggests that some of the expected tightening was already reflected in the price. It does not establish how Bitcoin will respond to a longer period of higher rates.Investors were also pulling money out of US spot Bitcoin ETFs. Withdrawals totalled $450.4 million on 15 September and $295.9 million the following day, according to Farside Investors. That is $746.3 million across two sessions. Two days do not establish a trend, and the first session preceded the announcement. They do make it premature to say the market has taken the decision in its stride.

Higher rates make the choice facing investors more demanding. Short-term government debt offers income with far less price uncertainty than Bitcoin. Bitcoin pays no interest of its own. Investors buying it must be willing to accept volatility for what they believe it can deliver over time.

Institutional investors make that calculation too. A fund manager can believe in Bitcoin and still reduce an allocation because borrowing has become more expensive or clients want less risk. Institutional participation cannot be treated as a permanent commitment to buy. The same investment committees that approve an allocation can cut it.
The source of inflation deserves closer attention. The conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran has added energy costs to an economy already struggling with persistent inflation. Higher rates cannot restore disrupted oil supplies. They can restrain spending and reduce the chance that an initial jump in fuel prices spreads into more lasting price increases.It would still be too convenient to describe this as an oil problem alone. The Fed reports resilient domestic spending and robust investment. Its median forecast puts core inflation, which excludes food and energy, at 3.4% this year. There is enough underlying inflation to make an early reversal of policy difficult to assume.

An energy shock does not, by itself, weaken the case for using blockchain to settle transactions more efficiently. Nor does it change Bitcoin’s supply rules. But preserving an investment argument is different from preserving demand. A household paying more for fuel has less money available to invest. A fund facing redemptions may sell an asset it still believes in. Bitcoin’s scarcity cannot prevent either decision.

The pressure also extends beyond the US. The European Central Bank raised rates by 25 basis points on 10 September, citing inflation pressures from the Middle East conflict. The Bank of England’s next decision was scheduled for 17 September. That warrants attention to policy across major economies, without assuming that their decisions are coordinated or that all will take the same course.

If more central banks tighten, crypto faces a broader constraint on funding and investor appetite. Capital can still move between countries, but fewer markets will offer cheap borrowing. For an asset class traded globally, looking only at the Fed leaves part of the picture out.

Even here, it is important to be precise about liquidity. The Fed says it will maintain ample reserves in the banking system. A rate increase does not automatically mean those reserves are being withdrawn. Crypto trading can nevertheless become thinner if buyers commit less money or market makers reduce the size of their orders. Forced selling from leveraged positions can then push prices down faster, particularly in smaller tokens.

The Fed’s projections suggest this adjustment may take time. Sixteen of 18 Fed officials envisage at least one further hike this year. The median implies a year-end range of 4–4.25%, unchanged at the end of 2027. Eight Fed officials see 4.25–4.5% for 2027. These are individual assessments, not a promised timetable, but they give investors little basis for assuming that cheaper money is imminent – liquidity may not ease as quickly as markets had hoped.

For Indian investors, the rupee adds another calculation. If the dollar strengthens against it, a fall in Bitcoin’s dollar price can translate into a smaller decline in rupee terms. That currency effect should not be mistaken for stronger demand for Bitcoin. It can reverse too.

Over the coming weeks, buying behaviour, and ETF inflow pattern and volume will tell us more than the first reaction to the announcement. A recovery financed largely by borrowing would leave the market exposed to another round of forced selling. For now, the industry needs to observe whether users continue being interested in crypto investment if the next rate cut takes much longer than expected.

(The author is Vice President, WazirX)

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The retailer, which also owns Pretty Little Thing, said it expects earnings to continue to improve

Online retail group Debenhams has announced a return to earnings profits for the past six months as trading gathered strength.

The retailer, which also owns the Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing brands, said it anticipates earnings will continue to strengthen following cost-cutting measures as it pushes ahead with its turnaround strategy.

Boss Dan Finley said: “Our turnaround continues at pace.

“This is a strong first half and, importantly, one where growth accelerated as we went through it.”

Debenhams informed shareholders that gross merchandise value (GMV), the group’s preferred sales measure, rose by 1.8% in the six months to 31 August, compared with a year earlier.

It confirmed that growth of 0.5% in the first quarter picked up pace to 2.9% in the latest quarter.

The performance was particularly buoyed by the Debenhams brand, which posted a 14.1% sales uplift, while Pretty Little Thing, Boohoo and Karen Millen all moved back into growth territory.

The retail firm also disclosed reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £20 million for the half-year, reversing a £3 million earnings loss from a year earlier.

It attributed this to an 83.5% drop in exceptional costs to £4 million.

Management said they anticipate a “continued material improvement” in earnings and a return to profitability for the year.

Debenhams confirmed it remains on course with plans to deliver £100 million in cost savings by next year. The group also revealed its ambition to bring down its net debt from £102 million to “negligible” levels following a series of asset disposals in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, Debenhams announced the sale of women’s fashion label Nasty Gal to WSG brands for 16 million US dollars (£11.9 million).

This followed the company’s announcement the previous week of the sale of its Sheffield warehouse to Primark for £90 million, with the retail giant intending to use the facility to support home deliveries.

Mr Finley added: “With the cost programme ahead of plan, lease costs falling and net debt down year on year, we are reiterating our guidance of double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth and free cash flow in full-year 2027.

“Since the half-year end, the Sheffield distribution centre and Nasty Gal disposals mark a further significant step in reducing leverage, and we now expect net debt to be negligible at our February 2027 year end.”

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of VICI, NNN, REXR, OKE, ADC, O either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Manchester-founded company floated on the London Stock Exchange last year

The Beauty Tech Group has more than tripled its first-half profits as surging demand for at-home beauty devices drove sales up by over 40 per cent.

The owner of Currentbody Skin, ZIIP Beauty and Tria Laser posted pre-tax profits of £17.5m for the six months ending June, up from £5m the previous year. Revenues jumped 44.3 per cent to £79.7m, from £55.2m, while gross profit increased 52.8 per cent to £51.3m.

The Manchester-founded firm, which floated on the London Stock Exchange last October at a valuation of some £300m, has capitalised on rising consumer appetite for devices that bring treatments formerly confined to beauty salons into people’s homes.

Its most recognisable products include CurrentBody’s LED face masks, which employ varying wavelengths of light in treatments designed to enhance skin quality.

The Alderley Edge-based group said first-half trading had exceeded expectations and now anticipates full-year revenues of at least £170m, maintaining the upgraded guidance it issued in July, as reported by City AM.

It also lifted its expectations for underlying earnings, though the company stopped short of providing fresh statutory profit forecasts.

The business closed June with £52m in net cash after accounting for liabilities and zero debt, up from £40.8m at the end of 2025, and has separately unveiled plans to repurchase up to £20m of its own shares. No interim dividend will be distributed.

“At-home beauty technology is the fastest-growing part of the beauty market and we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of it through our three distinct brands: CurrentBody Skin, ZIIP Beauty and Tria Laser”, founder and chief executive Laurence Newman said.

“We have entered the second half, typically our strongest period of trading, with real momentum and a significant launch pipeline”.

The figures arrive less than a year after Beauty Tech Group made its London market debut, in one of comparatively few notable floats on the struggling exchange last year.

The business raised approximately £29m through the IPO, enabling it to eliminate external debt. Its inaugural annual results since listing, released in April, revealed turnover had climbed 39.4 per cent to £141m in 2025, while gross profit jumped 53.9 per cent to £88.3m.

Roughly 80 per cent of its sales were generated beyond the UK and Ireland last year, with the group trading across more than 90 markets.

Its swift expansion has been driven by Currentbody Skin, which has helped transform the somewhat disconcerting spectacle of an illuminated face mask from something akin to a science fiction prop into a staple of beauty regimes and social media platforms.

Currentbody introduced its first LED light therapy mask in 2018, when persuading customers to fasten a glowing contraption to their face demanded considerably more justification. “It was definitely a real challenge in the early days” Emily Buckwell, associate communications director at Currentbody, told City AM ahead of the results.

“The science on LED light therapy was already there, but consumer awareness wasn’t, so it was about finding the right balance between educating people and normalising the idea of actually wearing the mask”.

The firm has since developed a third generation of its LED range, set to launch in the second half of the year following two years of research and testing.

Beauty Tech Group is also investing in its own laboratory, due to open in early 2027, while research conducted alongside the University of Manchester is exploring how skin changes following the use of at-home LED devices.

ZIIP Beauty, meanwhile, has completed manufacturing adjustments ahead of a new product range rolling out in the second half of the year, as the group also moves to bring its European warehousing operations in-house.

The company remains confident there is substantial room for growth within the category. Beauty technology currently accounts for just one per cent of consumer beauty spending across its core markets, according to the group.

BlackRock BLK 1.97%increase; up pointing triangle will offer American workers a chance to invest more like a multibillion-dollar pension.  

The world’s largest investment firm by assets under management said it would work with corporate clients to build customizable funds for 401(k) plans that can include slices of public stocks and bonds, private assets and even annuities that provide guaranteed income in retirement.

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