Cardano’s ADA, Avalanche’s AVAX and Injective’s INJ tokens led altcoin gains as risk assets rallied on dovish Fed.
Bitcoin (BTC) bounced over $43,000 Wednesday for the first time since Monday’s flash crash, pulling the crypto market and shares of digital asset-focused companies higher with it as the Federal Reserve (Fed) signaled interest rate cuts for next year.
While the U.S. central bank officials left the Fed funds rate at 5.25%-5.5% on Wednesday concluding the December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, they projected the rate would come down to 4.6% by the end of 2024, indicating roughly three 25 basis point cuts.
Bond yields and the U.S. dollar index (DXY) fell sharply on the Fed’s dovish projection, supporting a broad-market rally for risk-assets including stocks and cryptocurrencies.
BTC, the largest crypto asset, surpassed $43,000 by late U.S. afternoon hours, climbing almost 5% from below $41,000 earlier in the day.
BTC, the largest crypto asset, surpassed $43,000 by late U.S. afternoon hours, climbing almost 5% from below $41,000 earlier in the day.
Large-cap tokens of Avalanche (AVAX), Cardano (ADA) and Injective (INJ) posted near 10% gains, making the CoinDesk Smart Contract Platform Index (SMT) the best-performing among CoinDesk’s crypto sectors.
Which tracks a weighted basket of almost 200 digital assets, was up 3.8% over the past 24 hours.
Crypto-related stocks also bursted higher. Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) closed the trading session almost 8% higher, while Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy (MSTR) gained 5%.
U.S.-listed bitcoin miners Marathon Digital (MARA), Riot Platforms (RIOT), CleanSpark (CLSK) – often seen as a leveraged bet on BTC – were up 8%-16% through the day.
U.S.-listed bitcoin miners Marathon Digital (MARA), Riot Platforms (RIOT), CleanSpark (CLSK) – often seen as a leveraged bet on BTC – were up 8%-16% through the day.
