Leading cryptocurrencies spiked Wednesday on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's favorable comments on Bitcoin and nomination of Paul Atkins as the next U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair.
| Cryptocurrency | Gains +/- | Price (Recorded at 7:45 p.m. ET) |
| Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) | +2.88% | $98,465.76 |
|
Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) |
+5.01% | $3,808.09 |
| Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) | +3.25% | $0.4253 |
What Happened: The world's largest cryptocurrency breached $99,000 after a 10-day gap, while Ethereum tapped $3,800 for the first time in six months.
The rally was likely spurred by Powell equating Bitcoin with gold and dispelling notions that the leading cryptocurrency was a threat to the U.S. monetary system.
The appointment of Paul Atkins, perceived to be cryptocurrency-friendly, as SEC's next Chair by President-elect Donald Trump, also provided fuel.
More than $513 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, with $330 million in bullish bets getting erased.
About $383 million in short positions risked liquidation on Binance if Bitcoin hits $100,000.
Additionally, the number of top trader accounts shorting Bitcoin exceeded those placing bullish bets on the asset, as per Long/Short Ratio.
The "Extreme Greed" strengthened from 78 to 84 in the last 24 hours, per reading from the Cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index.
Top Gainers (24-Hours)
| Cryptocurrency | Gains +/- | Price (Recorded at 7:45 p.m. ET) |
| Curve DAO Token (CRV) | +23.66% | $1.09 |
| The Sandbox (SAND) | +19.72% | $0.9311 |
| Gala (GALA) | +18.08% | $0.06085 |
The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $3.58 trillion, following an increase of 1.75% in the last 24 hours.
Stocks extended their record-breaking rally on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 308.51 points, or 0.69%, to close above 45,000 for the first time. The S&P 500 gained 0.61% to end at 6,086.49, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite spiked 1.30%, ending at 19,735.12. All three indexes closed at record highs.
The rally comes amid lower-than-expected growth in U.S. private businesses in November.
Investors shrugged off Fed Chair Powell's remarks on moving cautiously with rate cuts given the healthy state of the economy, as odds of a 0.25% slash increased from 72.9% to 74% in the last 24 hours, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
See More: Best Cryptocurrency Scanners
Analyst Notes: Cryptocurrency analyst venturefounder expected Ethereum to break out of the range where it has been for the last seven years.
"Ethereum to repeat this impulsive breakout it did between 2016-2017 to shoot to new ATH very quickly," the analyst remarked, setting a bold price target of $15,937 by May 2025
CrypNuevo, a popular X account known for offering technical analysis, predicted that a decisive close above $98,398 will propel Bitcoin to $104,000-$105,000.
Citing on-chain data, Influential analyst Ali Martinez revealed that nearly 400 whales, those holding between 100 and 10,000 BTC, have joined the network in the last two weeks.
Photo by SvetlanaParnikova on Shutterstock
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