Benzinga - by Mehab Qureshi, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Major cryptocurrencies rose on Wednesday evening as the U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell adopted a dovish tone and the central bank stuck to its projection for three rate cuts this year, even in the face of higher-than-anticipated inflation figures.
| Cryptocurrency | Gains +/- | Price (Recorded 9:30 p.m. EDT) |
| Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) | +7.47% | $67,641 |
| Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) | +9.94% | $3,548 |
| Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) | +15.89% | $0.15 |
What Happened: Bitcoin reached a high of $67,800, showing a more than 10% recovery from levels seen just hours earlier.
Ethereum also bounced back from a 8% dip earlier in the day, which was sparked by news reports about the Ethereum Foundation facing a confidential inquiry from an unnamed government and the SEC considering classifying the asset as a security.
Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting ended with policymakers deciding to maintain interest rates and holding off on any plans for rate cuts. This move eliminates the potential for a more aggressive approach that was causing concerns about asset prices.
"The Committee does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent," the central bank said.
According to a report by CoinDesk, the Ethereum Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organization central to the Ethereum ecosystem, is currently under scrutiny by an undisclosed “state authority,” as indicated on the group’s GitHub repository.
Top Gainer (24 Hour)
| Cryptocurrency | Gains +/- | Price (Recorded 9:30 p.m. EDT) |
| FLOKI (CRYPTO: FTM) | +36.35% | $0.0002532 |
| Ondo (CRYPTO: PEPE) | +35.44% | $0.72 |
| Exelar (CRYPTO: TIA) | +27.66% | $2.12 |
The global cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.31 trillion, showing a 5.34% decrease in the past 24 hours.
The three main stock market indexes surged to reach their highest-ever closing levels on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve decided to keep rates at a 23-year high and reiterated its intention to implement three cuts by the end of 2024.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared by 401.37 points, or 1.03%, closing at 39,512.13. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 climbed by 0.89% to end the day at 5,224.62, surpassing the 5,200 mark for the first time ever. The Nasdaq Composite also performed well, rising by 1.25% to settle at 16,369.41.
Although the Fed maintained current interest rates, it confirmed its plan for three cuts by the year’s end, aligning with its previous forecast from December. However, the central bank emphasized the need for stronger evidence of easing inflation before considering any changes.
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Analyst Notes: Cryptocurrency analyst Michael Van de Poppe mentioned that the extremely positive sentiment surrounding Bitcoin is a good thing.
"Long-term, a likelihood of Bitcoin reaching $500K is definitely there. However, corrections will happen and they’ll be rough. If Bitcoin corrects by 20% or more, use those as a giant buying opportunity. That’s it."
The overly bullish sentiment is great for #Bitcoin.Long-term, a likelihood of Bitcoin reaching $500K is definitely there.
However, corrections will happen and they'll be rough.
If Bitcoin corrects by 20% or more, use those as a giant buying opportunity.
That's it.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) February 21, 2024
Just a day ago, the pseudonymous analyst Rekt Capital warned that Bitcoin has entered the “Danger Zone” (orange), marking the historical Pre-Halving Retrace period. Currently, Bitcoin is about 27 days away from the Halving and has experienced a nearly 18% pullback since last week.
"Historically, Bitcoin has performed Pre-Halving Retraces 14-28 days before the Halving. In 2020, this retrace was -20% deep. In 2016, this retrace was -40% deep."
#BTCIt's been 1 day since Bitcoin officially entered the "Danger Zone" (orange) where historical Pre-Halving Retraces have begun
Currently, $BTC is approximately 27 days away from the Halving and has pulled back almost -18% in total since last week
Historically, Bitcoin has… pic.twitter.com/yLc0UQ3Byi
— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) March 20, 2024
Crypto analyst Altcoin Sherpa pointed out that there have been many lower highs created in the last few days on BTC. "Still dubious on this being ‘the bottom’ (I hope it is) and will take it level to level. For now, I’m still max long."
$BTC: Lots of lower highs created the last few days, we need to see price actually break one of those. Still dubious on this being 'the bottom' (I hope it is) and will take it level to level. For now, I'm still max long pic.twitter.com/Jx5SRPaqnZ— Altcoin Sherpa (@AltcoinSherpa) March 20, 2024
Santiment, an on-chain data analytics firm, reported that after the FOMC announced that interest rates will remain unchanged for the time being, the crypto markets saw a significant rebound. Traders are feeling very positive as the Fed’s decision is benefiting both #equities and the correlation of cryptocurrency with the SP500.