BTC Jumps Near $24000; Fed Meets Expectation

By Laxmikant Khanvilkar

Cryptocurrencies are back in green and are set to post another week of gains, thanks to Federal Reserve protracted moves. Bitcoin jumped $700, moving above $23,600, as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested the U.S. central bank is seeing signs of waning inflation.

Prior to Powell speaking, the Federal Open Market Committee – as expected – lifted its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to a new range of 4.5%-4.75%, the highest level in 15 years. In its policy statement, the central bank said “ongoing increases” in borrowing costs will be necessary to further cool inflation.

Powell's concluding remark underlined the destructive nature of inflation and at the same time the Fed’s resolve to bring it down to the 2% target.

Data from the CME Group now shows investors pricing in an 86% chance of another 25 basis point rate hike to a range of 4.75%-5.00% at the FOMC’s March meeting.

Following the comments, BTC rallied 2% while Ethereum collected gains of more than 3%.

The global crypto market cap increased 3.18% to $1.08 tn in the last 24 hours.

Total crypto market volume surged 19.21% to $56.42 bn. Of the total crypto volume, DeFi accounts for $4.95 bn, which is 8.78%. The volume of all stable coins is now $50.57 bn, which is 89.62% of the total crypto market 24-hour volume.

Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 42.32%, a decrease of 0.03% over the day.

Elsewhere, Nasdaq is now ahead 2.6% and the S&P 500 is gaining 1.6%.

Crypto-exposed stocks also gained, with exchange Coinbase (COIN) rising 8% and bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) up 7%.

1 months ago