Although BTC did not initially react to the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike, the asset spiked hours later, recording a new price level, its highest in more than five months.
Most altcoins have posted even more impressive gains on a daily scale, with ETH rising to $1,700 earlier.
Bitcoin Soared Above $24,000
The main cryptocurrency closed its best January since 2013, marking a monthly increase of almost 40%. This came as the asset finally topped $17,000 at the start of the year and jumped to almost $23,000 by the end of the month.
However, there were some expectations of further price volatility yesterday, February 1, as the US Federal Reserve was scheduled to wrap up its first FOMC meeting of the year. Most estimates showed the central bank will raise interest rates by 25 basis points, which is normally considered bullish for risky assets given previous hikes of 75 basis points.
The Fed complied, raising interest rates to 4.75%, and Powell He suggested that there could be just a couple more increases.
BTC did not react at first, but the landscape changed in the following hours. The asset first dipped below $23,000 before skyrocketing to $24,350 (on Bitstamp). This became its highest price since mid-August 2022.
Bitcoin has lost some value since that local spike, but is still trading well in the green on a daily basis. As such, its market capitalization has reached $460 billion, and its dominance over alternatives stands firm at 42.2%.
The alternatives also shoot
Altcoins were also quiet yesterday ahead of the FOMC announcement, but most have rallied now.
Ethereum is leading the charge. The second largest cryptocurrency touched $1,700 earlier, and while it is currently below that line, it is still up more than 6% on the day. Binance Coin (7.5%) has touched $330. Similar gains are evident from Cardano, OKB, Solana, Polkadot, Uniswap, Litecoin, and Shiba Inu.
Polygon and Avalanche are the two with the most price increases in one day: 14% and 15%, respectively. As a result, MATIC is trading at $1.22, while AVAX is only inches away from $22.
Small-cap and mid-cap alternatives also have similar gains. As such, it is not surprising that the total crypto market capitalization has added up to more than $30 billion daily and is close to $1.1 trillion.
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