Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), plunged sharply hours after the United States Federal Reserve released the minutes of its December meeting, showing that it eyes a faster timetable for hiking interest rates in 2022.

The minutes showed that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is in favor of raising short-term rates “sooner or at a faster pace than participants had earlier anticipated.” According to the CME Group, trading in the interest-rate futures market showed a two-thirds possibility of the first increase in March.

Ether turned lower after the minutes were released, dropping by over 13.50% to as low as $3,300. Its plunge mirrored similar downside moves across the crypto market, with Bitcoin (BTC) shedding a little over 9% to nearly $42,100.

Incontestably, ETH/USD returned more losses to its investors than BTC/USD after the Fed’s announcement.

It appears traders decided to unwind tokens sitting atop better long-term profits than Bitcoin. For instance, Ether’s returns in the last 12 months — even after the Fed-led drop — came out to be around 175%. On the other hand, Bitcoin’s profits were nearly 15.75% in the same period.

Similarly, Ether’s top rival, Solana (SOL), also logged more losses than Bitcoin, dipping by more than 13.75% after the Fed’s news. Nonetheless, its 12-month profits came out to be more than 7,500%, signaling further extreme corrections if the crypto market’s bias remains skewed toward bears.

ETH/BTC reaches key…