Beaten-down cryptocurrencies rallied amid palpable relief in global markets after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated that a series of super-sized interest-rate hikes is unlikely. Bitcoin price today rose over 2% and trading at $22,391. The world’s largest crypto is down more than 51% so far this year (YTD), and is trading far below its record high of $69,000 it had hit in November last year.
On the other hand, Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain and the second largest cryptocurrency, gained over a per cent at $1,220. Meanwhile, dogecoin price today was also trading more than 9% higher at $0.09 whereas Shiba Inu also surged 5% to $0.000009. The global cryptocurrency market cap today rose back above $1 trillion, up about 2% in the last 24 hours.
Other crypto prices’ today performance also improved as Stellar, Uniswap, XRP, Tether, Solana, Polkadot, Avalanche, Polygon, Chainlink, Terra Luna Classic, Cardano, Litecoin, and Tron prices were trading with gains in the range of 4-17% over the last 24 hours.
Crypto prices pushed higher, snapping a prolonged period of pain that contributed to a more than $1 trillion drop in crypto market value this year. Crypto started sliding late last year on expectations of a less accommodative Fed, with rising interest rates hurting the industry and its prospects.
Last month’s collapse of the Terra blockchain and the recent decision by crypto lender Celsius Network Ltd. to halt withdrawals have also taken a toll, while a tweet this week from the co-founder of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital fueled speculation that it had suffered large losses.
Crypto lending platform Celsius Network may have limited options in its efforts to stay solvent after its decision to freeze withdrawals helped set off one of the biggest digital token meltdowns in years.
So says crypto research firm Kaiko, which pointed to a combination of “poor risk management, bearish market conditions, and a derivative of Ethereum” known as stETH as the reasons Celsius now finds itself in a “Lehman-esque” position, reported Bloomberg.
All sorts of pockets in crypto have been beset by negative developments. A number of crypto firms have announced layoffs and hiring freezes, and many market-watchers are expecting further price declines ahead.
(With inputs from agencies)
