Cryptocurrencies extended gains early on Wednesday ahead of a keenly watched speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, that is expected to throw hints on the Fed’s monetary policy path. Stock markets rallied amidst hopes that the easing in inflation seen across regions would goad central banks to tone down their aggressive stance.
The general weakness of the Dollar, as reflected in the overnight decline of 0.29 percent in the Dollar Index, a measure of the Dollar’s relative strength against a basket of six currencies, also supported the Dollar-denominated cryptocurrency prices.
Overall crypto market capitalization increased to $850 billion, versus $834 billion a day earlier.
Bitcoin added more than 2 percent overnight to trade at $16,820.11. The lead cryptocurrency had earlier touched a high of $17,021.67. BTC has gained 1.8 percent in the past week.
Ethereum gained 3.89 percent in the past 24 hours and is currently trading at $1,262.41. The leading alternate coin touched a high of $1,276.55 in the past 24 hours. Ether’s gains in the past week exceed 8 percent. The Ethereum-led Smart Contracts category also gained more than 3 percent in the past 24 hours.
4th ranked BNB (BNB) declined 1.33 percent despite the broad-based rally. Market capitalization of the BNB-led Centralized Exchange Tokens (CEX) category dropped 0.67 percent overnight amidst declines in UNUS SED LEO (LEO), Huobi Token (HT) and KuCoin Token (KCS).
7th ranked XRP (XRP) and 8th ranked Dogecoin (DOGE) gained more than 1 percent overnight.
9th ranked Cardano (ADA) edged up 0.70 percent whereas 10th ranked Polygon (MATIC) rallied 3.2 percent overnight.
64th ranked Fantom (FTM) extended gains with a 12 percent overnight rally. The cryptocurrency has gained 35 percent in the past week.
80th ranked GMX (GMX), 30th ranked Quant (QNT) and 33rd ranked NEAR Protocol (NEAR) have all added more than 6 percent in the past 24 hours.
31st ranked ApeCoin (APE) was the biggest laggard among the top 100 with a 3.6 percent overnight decline. 85th ranked Stacks (STX), 39th ranked Huobi Token (HT), 100th ranked XDC Network (XDC) and 78th ranked BinaryX (BNX) have all shed more than 2 percent overnight.
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