Bitcoin Price Jumps 2.9% After Fed Meeting

The United States Federal Reserve (The Fed)'s decision to raise its benchmark interest rate has been leveraged by cryptocurrency investors to accumulate purchases.

Coinbase data shows that overall, cryptocurrencies strengthened by 3.57% in the last 24 hours of trading on Thursday (March 17th) until 2:58 PM WIB. Bitcoin (BTC), the benchmark cryptocurrency in today's trading, strengthened by 2.92% to Rp 582.76 million per coin.

Avalanche (AVAX) price increased by 10.25% to Rp 1.1 million per coin, leading the rise in large-capitalization cryptocurrencies today. This was followed by Solana (SOL), which strengthened by 5.13% to Rp 1.25 million per coin; Cardano (ADA), which rose by 4.95% to Rp 12,06 thousand per coin; and Polkadot (DOT), which rose by 4.08% to Rp 271.33 million per coin.

Ethereum (ETH) also saw a price increase of 4.04% to Rp 39.42 million per coin. XRP (XRP) rose by 3.13% to Rp 11.28 thousand per coin, Binance Coin (BNB) increased by 3.08% to Rp 5.5 million per coin, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 2.95% to Rp 1.67 thousand per coin, and Terra (LUNA) rose by 0.39% to Rp 1.26 million per coin.

These ten cryptocurrencies have a combined market capitalization exceeding Rp 200 trillion today. Bitcoin has the largest market capitalization at Rp 11.09 quadrillion, while Dogecoin has the smallest at Rp 222 trillion.

The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time since 2018. In a meeting of the Fed's Board of Governors, the interest rate increase was set at 25 basis points (bps), bringing it to 0.5%.

The Fed's interest rate hike of only 25 bps was less aggressive than previously feared. This decision provided a stimulus for investors to return to large-capitalization cryptocurrency portfolios.

Previously, there were concerns that the Fed would raise its interest rate by as much as 50 bps due to high inflation in the US, which reached 7.9% in February 2022 (Year on year/YoY) due to rising prices, especially for energy commodities.