Bitcoin hit $100,000 per coin again on Wednesday—bringing a number of top altcoins with it—after data dropped Wednesday showing that inflation in the U.S. was rising at an expected pace.
CoinGecko reports that the biggest coin in terms of market capital is currently trading at $100,500 a coin. It's up 5% in the past 24 hours, and nearly as much over a seven-day period.
Bitcoin dropped below the $95,000 level on Tuesday. It prompted a number of positions to be liquidated, both long and short. However, it has slowly recovered since then. Last week the leading cryptocurrency reached a price of $100,000, and is now at an all-time record high.
Bureau of Labor Statistics figures on Wednesday showed that the core consumer price index, or CPI—which excludes food and energy prices—rose 0.3% last month, in line with analysts' expectations.
As inflation appears to be under control, experts now expect the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates next month. U.S. stocks also rose in response to the news.
Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies in general have done better when interest rates are lower. This is because investors who have a higher appetite for risk tend to be more interested in the asset.
In the altcoin market, XRP, the third-biggest digital coin by market cap, is making the most gains: its price has soared by 17% in the past day and it's now trading for $2.44.
That's a reversal from Tuesday, when the coin plunged below the $2.00 mark after rising as high as $2.82 last week—a seven-year high price for the Ripple-linked coin. The bounce-back comes amid Bitcoin's own rebound, but also Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse saying Tuesday that the company's RLUSD stablecoin is launching soon following New York regulatory approval.
This just in…we have final approval from @NYDFS for $RLUSD! Exchange and partner listings will be live soon – and reminder: when RLUSD is live, you’ll hear it from @Ripple first.
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) December 10, 2024
Elsewhere, Dogecoin, the seventh biggest coin by market cap and Elon Musk's favorite digital asset, is up nearly 9%, trading for more than $0.415. Shiba Inu – a copycat coin based on Ethereum – has also risen by nearly 13% in the past 24 hours. Now, its price stands at around $0.000029.
Solana has gained more than 9% today at $229 while Cardano is now up 13% on $1.09.
Money has flowed back into exchange-traded products like the new Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S., with a record $3.85 billion hitting vehicles giving traditional investors exposure to the crypto world last week amid Bitcoin's initial jump over the $100K mark.
Andrew Hayward edited the book