The price of leading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are rising after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that it is leaving interest rates unchanged.
The U.S. Federal Reserve voted 9-3 in favour of holding its key Fed Funds Rate steady in a range of 3.50% to 3.75%.
That was positive news for risk assets such as crypto that tend to perform poorly when interest rates move higher, sending investors into safer assets such as bonds.
In early trading on July 30, Bitcoin’s price was up 2% and changing hands at $64,800 U.S. Ethereum was up 1% at $1,930 U.S.
Other digital assets such as Solana (SOL) and Dogecoin (DOGE) were also up about 1%.
There had been concerns heading into the latest Federal Reserve meeting that the central bank intended to raise interest rates, which would have likely hurt crypto prices.
Wall Street was unusually divided over whether the Fed should raise interest rates, with futures traders putting the odds at 30%.
However, the reprieve in interest rate hikes might be short lived as the market is pricing in two 25-basis point increases from the Fed this year, one in September and another in December.
Cryptocurrencies had also been slumping this week amid a continued selloff in technology stocks, particularly chipmakers such as SanDisk (SNDK) and Micron Technology (MU).
But now, crypto appears to be rebounding on news that the U.S. central bank is standing pat on interest rates for a few more months.
The Federal Reserve next decides on interest rates Sept. 16.
