Bitcoin jumped slightly on the release of the Federal Reserve’s minutes from its November meeting, the captured discussion suggesting that the central bank may make smaller interest rate increases going forward.
The stock market similarly ticked up as traders digested the news.
The biggest cryptocurrency by market cap was trading for $16,498 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko—a 2.6% increase over 24 hours.
Ethereum also went up in value: the second biggest digital asset was up 3.3% in the past day, trading for $1,169.
The rest of the market also jumped, including the ninth biggest cryptocurrency and Elon Musk favorite Dogecoin, which was up 4.8% in 24 hours, trading hands for $0.08.
Typically, Bitcoin—and the wider crypto market—has followed U.S. equities this year. This is because digital assets are deemed riskier assets by traders.
Trader Ryan Scott told Decrypt the uptick was expected. “It seems like this is in line with market expectations. Short term traders aggressively positioned behind the release driving both crypto and equity index futures briefly,” he said.
With the Federal Reserve upping interest rates to get sky-high inflation under control, investors have been keen to shift risk and instead put their cash into safe-havens like the U.S. dollar.
While the dollar has soared in value this year, it experienced losses against the yen and euro following the release of today’s minutes.
Overall, the meeting notes showed that there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. “A substantial majority of participants judged that a slowing in the pace of increase would likely soon be appropriate,” Wednesday’s minutes said.
