Crypto bucks the trend and heads upwards

Ignoring yet another 75 basis point rate rise from the Federal Reserve, Bitcoin and crypto are heading higher as stocks go lower.

A hawkish meeting

Fresh on the heels of another hawkish Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, crypto has decided to decorrelate from the general slide seen in the stock market and is heading higher unperturbed.

Perhaps when Fed chair Jerome Powell spoke after the FOMC meeting on the back of the 75 basis point rise, he would have imagined that the hawkish tone he used would have put the fear of God into all market sectors.

It can’t be denied that Wall Street certainly took him at his word. The S&P Index continued its slide since last Tuesday, which has taken it down nearly 5.5% over the last three days.

There are signs however, that even in Wall Street the market is starting to price in an easing of future rate hikes. Powell’s particularly hawkish tone after the FOMC meeting was likely an attempt to frighten the markets, but it appears there was a realisation that the Fed can’t hike forever, and a reduction in rate rises may well be on the horizon.

Crypto heads higher

In the crypto markets there was a fair amount of volatility on the day. Bitcoin seesawed up and down in a relatively tight range. Nonetheless, today dawned extremely brightly for the king of the cryptocurrencies as bitcoin began the day at around $20,200 and is currently hovering at over $20,600.

The total crypto market cap has once more hit $1 trillion, having been down at $942 million as recently as Wednesday. Bitcoin dominance is continuing to see downward pressure as it gets close to breaking the 40% level. This means that altcoins are rallying strongly and are wresting the lead from bitcoin.

Ethereum leads the way

Ethereum is up 1.4% on bitcoin so far today and has gained about 5% against its U.S. dollar value since Wednesday. $ETH dominance has also turned upwards once again, giving the signal that Ethereum wants to lead the crypto market off of the bottom.

Other cryptocurrencies are doing even better. $BAND, a crypto oracle platform just like Chainlink, has put on over 200% in the last 2 days alone. Having reached a very important resistance at around $3.40 it may well cool off from here.

$MATIC the token for Polygon, the foremost layer 2 for Ethereum, has broken through the $1 resistance and is currently trading at $1.10, while Loopring ($LRC), another layer 2, is up 16% on the day, touching its own resistance at $0.32.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.