Proactive Investors - There were no real surprises to take away from the US Federal Reserve’s 25-point interest rate hike yesterday, but benchmark cryptocurrency bitcoin seemed to be happy with the call regardless.
As analysts over at ING put it, Fed chair Jerome Powell’s acknowledgement that the central bank could afford to be a little patient on forward monetary policy provided “breathing room for risk assets”.
The less hawkish tone emerging from the Fed also saw a softening of the greenback, which contributed to bitcoin upside.
However, the daily gains of 0.44% on the BTC/USDT pair still did not manage to break above the critical US$30,000 price point, hitting the midnight bell at US$29,350 instead.
BTC/USDT added another 0.3% this morning, pushing the pair to US$29,430, meaning there is still a fair bit of water between now and US$30,000.
Another interest rate decision, this time from the European Central Bank, is expected this afternoon, with forecasts pointing to another 25-point rate hike.
Dovish or hawkish forward guidance may provide further tail or headwinds for risk assets like bitcoin.
Bitcoin (BTC) currently on three days of green candlesticks – Source: currency.com
Over to Ethereum (ETH), the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency added 0.8% to close yesterday at US$1,872, with some further incremental upside this morning bringing the ETH/USDT pair to US$1,876.
Dogecoin (DOGE) remains the top blue-chip altcoin performer on a week-on-week basis, having added 13%.
The Shiba Inu-themed meme coin has been on a roll since long-time DOGE fan and Twitter, or X, boss Elon Musk added the Ð ticker symbol to his Twitter profile.
Speculation remains rife that Musk intends to incorporate DOGE as a payment option for Twitter services, although there have been no official plans announced as of today.
Other top altcoin performers in the mid-cap space over the past seven days include XDC Network (LON:NETW) (XDC) adding a meaty 75%, Maker (MKR) adding 26% and Chainlink (LINK) adding 16%.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at US$1.19tn, having added 1.1% overnight, with bitcoin dominance sitting at 49.8%.