Bitcoin Price Rallies After Fed Rate Decision. Where They Go From Here.

“Bitcoin broke the upper boundary of the weeklong consolidation, climbing to $36,000 early on Thursday before retreating,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst at broker FxPro. “Technically, the recent jump is a confirmation of the bullish bias. Bitcoin may not face significant resistance until $41,000, but the maximum target for this momentum is $46,000, where there was the last reversal.”

Multiple forces are pushing crypto prices higher. There remains significant buoyancy from optimism that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon approve a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which would be expected to usher in a fresh wave of retail and institutional interest. Geopolitical risk from conflict in the Middle East has also renewed calls for Bitcoin as a haven asset, like gold.

The latest catalyst for crypto gains is Wednesday’s monetary policy decision from the Fed. While the central bank signaled that it could still raise interest rates further to tame inflation, market pricing of rate futures suggests traders are confident that its work is done. The Fed has raised borrowing costs at the most dramatic pace in a generation since early last year as inflation hit a multidecade peak, with a tightening in financial conditions slamming risk-sensitive assets like stocks and cryptos. 

Bitcoin, like the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

and

S&P 500,

has benefited off the back of the Fed decision and the market’s dovish outlook, also underscoring that macroeconomics still matters to crypto traders.

Beyond Bitcoin,

Ether

—the second-largest crypto—rose more than 1% to $1,830. Smaller tokens or altcoins were even more buoyant, with

Cardano

jumping 7% and

Polygon

6% higher. It was more of the same from memecoins, with

Dogecoin

surging 5% and

Shiba Inu

gaining 4%.

Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com