Bitcoin Retakes $35,000 After FOMC as Solana’s SOL Leads Sharp Altcoin Rally

Directed by Solana (GROUND) Up 16%, altcoins rebounded strongly throughout Wednesday’s session, while bitcoin rose late. (BTC) pushed its price to a new 17-year high above $35,500.

At press time, Bitcoin was changing hands at around $35,400, up 1.7% over the past 24 hours and firmly above the $35,000 level that has capped its rise over the past two weeks.

Solana (GROUND) continues its remarkable rise, surge of 16% over the past 24 hours to hit a 14-month high. Tokens native to layer 1 blockchains such as Avalanche (AVAX)that of Polkadot (POINT) and Near Protocol (CLOSE) increased from 6% to 10%.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens – which were lagging in October – also made an appearance, with uniswap (UNITED) and aave (GHOST) increasing by 15% and 10% respectively.

Ether (ETH)the second-largest crypto by market cap, rose nearly 2%, outperforming bitcoin by a few basis points.

Checking the Downside, SafeMoon’s SFM Token Dropped more than 50% today as the Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested the project’s leaders for fraud and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges for unregistered securities offering.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at the post-FOMC press conference that a rise in U.S. Treasury yields had contributed to the tightening of financial conditions, but left open the option of an additional rise in yields. rate if necessary.

“The Fed likely succeeded in doing this after consecutive rate-holding measures kept rates at a 22-year high,” noted Edward Moya, market analyst at OANDA, in a newsletter. “The Fed did not rule out a rate hike in the coming months, but swap contracts showed traders were not convinced.”

Market participants now estimate that there is a 74% chance that the Fed will keep rates at the current level in January, up from 59%, and that it could start cutting them around mid-2024, according to the agency . CME FedWatch Tool.

Stocks ended the day sharply higher, with the S&P 500 up 1.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 up 1.5%. U.S. 10-year Treasury yields fell to 4.73% from nearly 5% earlier this week, factoring in slim chances of further hikes.

“BTC is a hedge against loose monetary policies and lower yields would strengthen this value proposition and investors’ willingness to buy and hold cryptocurrencies,” said Justin d’Anethan, head of business development at the cryptocurrency market maker Keyrock, in an email. . “If the hint of a change in rate policy becomes more pronounced, crypto markets could be expected to rise.”