Bitcoin Soared to 5-Month High Above $24K Following Fed’s Interest Rate Hike (Market Watch)

Although BTC didn’t react at first to the US Fed interest rate spike, the asset went on a roll hours later, registering a new highest price level in over five months.

Most altcoins have charted even more impressive gains on a daily scale, with ETH soaring to $1,700 earlier.

Bitcoin Spiked Above $24,000

The primary cryptocurrency closed its best January since 2013, marking a monthly increase of almost 40%. This came as the asset finally broke above $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 enhanced price volatility yesterday – February 1 – as the US Federal Reserve was scheduled to conclude its first FOMC meeting of the year. Most estimations showed that the central bank will increase the interest rates by 25 basis points, which is typically regarded as bullish for the risk-on assets given the previous hikes of 75 points.

The Fed followed through, bringing the interest rates to 4.75%, and Powell suggested that there could be just a couple more increases.

BTC didn’t react at first, but the landscape changed in the following hours. The asset first dipped below $23,000 before it shot up to $24,350 (on Bitstamp). This became its highest price tag since mid-August 2022.

Bitcoin has lost some value since that local peak but still trades well in the green on a daily scale. As such, its market cap has touched $460 billion, and its dominance over the alts sits tight at 42.2%.

Alts Shoot Up, Too

The alternative coins also sat quiet yesterday ahead of the FOMC announcement, but most have gone on a roll now.

Ethereum leads the charge. The second-largest crypto touched $1,700 earlier, and even though it currently stands beneath that line, it’s still over 6% up on the day. Binance Coin (7.5%) has tapped $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 a day – 14% and 15%, respectively. As a result, MATIC trades at $1.22, while AVAX is just inches away from $22.

The lower- and mid-cap alts are with similar gains as well. As such, it’s no wonder that the total crypto market cap has added over $30 billion daily and is close to $1.1 trillion.