Central Bank Interest Rates
What interest rates are central banks setting?
The short-term rates the US and euro area central banks set, and what US Treasury bills pay. They feed into what banks charge on loans and pay on savings.
What banks in the US typically pay to borrow overnight
The rate paid on overnight loans between banks, with the top and bottom of the range the Federal Reserve aims to keep it inside. It normally stays inside that range. Before December 2008 the Federal Reserve set a single target, so the range lines start then. Bitcoin’s closing price is the white line, with its prices on the far right.
What euro area banks earn at the central bank
What banks earn on money they leave with the European Central Bank overnight. The line steps on the day each change starts. Below zero, as from 2014 to 2022, banks paid to leave money there. Bitcoin’s closing price is the white line, with its prices on the far right.
What the US government pays to borrow for up to a year
The yearly return on US government bills, repaid in one, three and six months and in one year. These are Treasury par yields, the same measure as the two-year and ten-year bonds on the Bond Yields page; bill rates quoted as a discount read a little lower. The one-month line starts in July 2001, when Treasury began publishing it. Bitcoin’s closing price is the white line, with its prices on the far right.
Right now
The Federal Reserve aims to keep the rate banks pay to borrow overnight between 3.75% and 4.00% a year, and banks typically paid 3.88%.
For 5 Nov 2026.
Euro area deposit rate
2.50%
What banks earn on money left with the European Central Bank. In force since 16 Sep 2026.
This is a measure of the wider economy. It does not say where Bitcoin will move.
Understanding
Central Bank Interest Rates
The Federal Reserve aims to keep the rate banks pay to borrow overnight between 3.75% and 4.00% a year, and banks typically paid 3.88% as of .
Euro area banks earn 2.50% a year on money left with the European Central Bank as of .
What are these rates?
In the US, the Federal Reserve sets a target range for the rate banks pay to borrow overnight. In the euro area, the European Central Bank sets the rate banks earn on money they leave with it. These feed into most other rates, from savings accounts and car loans to business loans. Long-term rates, like a US fixed mortgage, follow them more loosely. The euro area is the group of European countries that use the euro.
What is a Treasury bill?
A Treasury bill is a loan to the US government that is repaid in a year or less. The charts show bills repaid in one, three and six months and in one year. Governments are among the safest borrowers, so a bill’s rate is roughly what money can earn with very little risk of not being repaid. No central bank sets it: it is the market’s price for lending to the government for that long, and it usually stays close to the Federal Reserve’s rate.
Why do people look at them next to Bitcoin?
When rates are high, cash and bonds pay more, so holding something that pays no interest, like gold or Bitcoin, means giving up more income. When rates fall, that cost shrinks. Rates are one influence among many.
How is it worked out?
The US line is the effective federal funds rate, published by the New York Fed: the typical rate paid on the day’s overnight loans between banks and similar lenders, taken as the middle rate with bigger loans counting for more. The two range lines show the top and bottom of the target range the Federal Reserve aims to keep that rate inside. Before December 2008 the Federal Reserve set a single target rather than a range, so the range lines start then. The euro area line is the European Central Bank’s deposit rate: what banks earn on money they leave with it overnight. The Treasury bill lines are the US Treasury’s daily par yields for bills repaid in one, three and six months and in one year, the same measure as the two-year and ten-year lines on the Bond Yields page. A par yield is the yearly return on a bond that sells for its face value, and Treasury works it out each afternoon from the prices of its most recently sold bills, notes and bonds. None of these is a rate a household pays on a loan.
What does it not tell you?
The central bank lines are rates banks pay and earn overnight, and the bill lines are what the US government pays to borrow for up to a year. None is what you pay on a mortgage or earn on savings, though those tend to follow. They do not say where Bitcoin will move.
Keep exploring
Source: Maketo, ECB statistics, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, U.S. Treasury. The reference-rate information is subject to the Terms of Use posted at newyorkfed.org. The New York Fed is not responsible for publication of the reference-rate information by Maketo, does not sanction or endorse any particular republication, and has no liability for your use.