July 29, 2022: -Bitcoin grew over $23,000, following stocks higher after the U.S. Federal Reserve increased interest rates but suggests the speed of hikes could slow.
Cryptocurrencies have been reasonably correlated to U.S. stocks, particularly the Nasdaq, which on Wednesday increased 4%.
On Thursday, Bitcoin traded at $23,239.03 at around 9:38 a.m. ET, up about 1.7%, according to data from CoinMetrics.
Other digital coins jumped, too. Ether was regarding 3.7% higher at $1,650.97, CoinMetrics found.
On Wednesday, the Fed resumed its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage points to fight rampant inflation without giving a tip to the economy into recession. But the central bank’s chair Jerome Powell indicated that the speed of rate increase could slow, which sparked an equity rally that fed into European and Asian trading on Thursday.
“The conclusion of Fed meeting opens up a summer window for a Bitcoin relief rally, given we have two months until policymakers coming deliberately on monetary policy,” Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of cryptocurrency wallet Nexo, said in a research note.
Bitcoin attempts to stage a sustained rally after several failed attempts this month. The largest cryptocurrency has been trading between $20,000 to more than $24,000 since mid-June after a brutal crash wiped off 50% of its value this year.
“The coming 24 hours will be a true test of Bitcoin’s re-discovered resilience after it was shrugging its shoulders at this month’s stellar U.S. inflation data and didn’t wince when Tesla announced it has sold most of its BTC holdings,” Trenchev said.
The cryptocurrency market is being battered this year, with billions of dollars being wiped off as macroeconomic problems have taken their toll and companies have imploded. Two high-profile examples are crypto lending platform Celsius and hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which filed for bankruptcy and brought investors down.
Crypto market players have said they are uncertain whether the shakeout and deleveraging are yet over.
