For the first time in over a month, Bitcoin has surpassed the $24,000 mark, following a rally in cryptocurrencies on Wednesday.
According to Coin Metrics data, Bitcoin rose more than 8% in 24 hours, trading at $24,047, its best since mid-June.
The rally followed news of a less aggressive hike in interest rates by the Federal Reserve, than was initially feared by many traders. Bitcoin though is still down roughly 50% since the start of 2021.
The value of risky assets like stocks and cryptocurrencies are usually affected by monetary policy instituted by the US central bank, especially interest rates. The bank is expected to raise rates again at its next policy meeting, although experts are once more expecting that the hike will be much less aggressive this time.
For crypto traders, many would be hoping that the worst of an intense market contagion caused by liquidity issues at some large crypto firms has likely passed. In the last couple of months, various digital currencies have seen a massive selloff and fall in value, as they suffered the ripple effects caused by the collapse of some notable crypto ventures.
Among the more prominent cases is Terra, a supposed algorithmic stablecoin, which fell to near-zero in May, and caused in its wake a chain of events that culminated in the bankruptcies of crypto firms Celsius, Three Arrows Capital and Voyager.
Ether also saw an increase on Wednesday, climbing almost 5% to $1,609.06. On the back of increased optimism buoyed by news of its highly anticipated upgrade to its network known as the “Merge”, the second largest token has seen its value rise more than 50% in the past seven days.
The update is expected to be completed by Sept 19, and would move the ethereum network away from the unsustainable crypto-mining to a more energy-efficient system.
Leave feedback about this