Bitcoin surges as Fed rate cut expected in weeks

Blue-chip cryptocurrencies Bitcoin simulated $96,898 ▼0.48% and Ethereum surged Thursday as Federal Reserve minutes suggested that U.S. interest rate cuts may commence within weeks.

The minutes validated bets on a rate cut next month and said the “vast majority” of policymakers felt that if data came in as expected, a September cut was likely to be appropriate.

As of 1:06 pm IST, Bitcoin (BTC) had risen 2% over the past 24 hours, trading at $60,798. Ethereum (ETH) gained 1.2%, trading at $2,631.

“As BTC bulls are showing strength above 60k USD, bears have started to show interest at the 21-week exponential moving average at 61.2k USD to take BTC back to early 60k USD levels. If this doesn’t happen, there is a good chance we will see a Bitcoin all-time high soon,” said CoinSwitch Markets Desk.

“The rally was further supported by a downward revision in U.S. employment growth data, indicating that the job market from March 2023 to March 2024 was not as robust as initially reported. This has fueled market participants’ hopes for more substantial interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, which should be expected sooner,” CoinSwitch added.

Meanwhile, Shivam Thakral, CEO of BuyUcoin, said, “Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies surged following the FOMC meeting minutes, which suggested a potential interest rate cut in September. Lower interest rates will enhance market liquidity as borrowing costs decrease.”

The broader cryptocurrency market saw gains across major tokens, including BNB, XRP, Dogecoin, Uniswap, Polkadot, Polygon, Chainlink, and Shiba Inu, which rose by up to 11%.

The volume of all stablecoins is now $65.33 billion, 92.97% of the total crypto market 24-hour volume, as per data available on CoinMarketCap.

In the last 24 hours, the market cap of Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, rose to $1.2 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 56.95%, according to CoinMarketCap. BTC volume in the last 24 hours rose 30% to $34.9 billion.