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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is extending its noteworthy year-to-date price gains in Thursday afternoon trading, flirting with the $24K multi-day technical resistance level, as the broader cryptocurrency market attracted further buying pressure on the heels of Fed chief Jerome Powell’s disinflation comments.
The global crypto market cap, jumped 5.8% to $1.10T, reaching the highest level since August 2022, according to CoinMarketCap data. That was largely boosted by bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) 1.6% rise to $23.76K as of shortly before 3:00 p.m. ET, as well as ethereum’s (ETH-USD) 3.3% climb to $1.67K. The tokens shot up 42.7% and 37.9% YTD, respectively, following a disastrous 2022.
Traders’ optimism around the Fed acknowledging its progress on the battle against persistent inflation is being seen across various risky asset classes, including stocks, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq (COMP.IND) soaring 2.6% (buoyed by big-tech earnings).
Market participants will keep close watch of Friday’s jobs report, which will provide more insight on whether the U.S. economy added less jobs growth during the month, a decrease of which economists are expecting. Slower labor growth is what the Fed wants to see as it seeks to reduce the gap between labor supply and demand so that wages don’t contribute to inflationary pressures.
Among the three cryptos garnering the biggest intraday upswings included: optimism (OP-USD) +23.7%, ethereum PoW (ETHW-USD) +24.8% and loopring (LRC-USD) +15.9%.
For crypto-exposed stocks, Cipher Mining (CIFR) was the top gainer, surging 53.6% at the time of writing, followed by Silvergate Capital (SI) +30.9%, Coinbase Global (COIN) +21.2% and Core Scientific (OTCPK:CORZQ) +18.6%.
Earlier, Berkshire Hathaway’s Charlie Munger urged the U.S. government to ban crypto like China did in 2021.
