The ECB fires the starting gunThe European Central Bank moved first. On June 11, 2026, the ECB raised its deposit facility rate by 25 basis points to 2.25%, marking its first interest rate increase since 2023. In July, the ECB held rates steady and made a point of emphasizing the “unpredictability” of future rate movements. For a central bank that spent the better part of a decade in negative rate territory, that’s a seismic shift. Ether, Solana, and XRP all showed heightened sensitivity to central bank communications, with noticeable sell-offs clustering around policy announcements and press conferences.