What happened
Shares of many cryptocurrencies and crypto-related stocks shot up after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark overnight lending rate and said it may soon consider slowing rate hikes.
![Dogecoin [DOGE] to rise beyond 40%? Whale activity may spur rally](https://crypto.newswireservice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/doge-wale-1000x600-120x86.jpg)
The price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC 7.32%), responded well to the news and is now up close to 8% over the past 24 hours.
In the same period, as of 3:24 p.m. ET today, the price of the meme crypto token Dogecoin (DOGE 6.12%) traded roughly 7.5% higher, crypto bank Silvergate Capital (SI 6.05%) traded 6.5% higher, and Bitcoin miner Hut 8 Mining (HUT 14.21%) traded about 12.5% higher.
So what
As expected, the Fed this afternoon raised its benchmark overnight lending rate, the federal funds rate, by 0.75% to bring it within a range of 2.25% to 2.5%. But what really pleased the market was Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments following the hike.
“As the stance of monetary policy tightens further, it likely will become appropriate to slow the pace of increases while we assess how our cumulative policy adjustments are effecting the economy and inflation,” he said.
Image source: Getty Images.
Still, Powell added that there could be another 0.75% hike at the Fed’s meeting in September but that decision would be based on data and how the economy and inflation are trending.
Riskier assets including tech stocks and cryptocurrencies, which have been battered by rate hikes all year, floored higher at the possibility of the hawkish Fed easing up on monetary policy. Many cryptocurrencies and crypto stocks move with at least some correlation to the price of Bitcoin, so the fact that the cryptocurrency is moving higher is taking the rest of the industry with it to some degree.
High inflation followed by rising interest rates have proven to be massive headwinds for much of the crypto industry and led to a crypto winter in recent months, where crypto prices and trading volume have fallen sharply. When rates rise, safer assets like U.S….
![Dogecoin [DOGE] to rise beyond 40%? Whale activity may spur rally](https://crypto.newswireservice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/doge-wale-1000x600-350x250.jpg)
