Bitcoin surged above $29,000 yesterday, marking a new nine-month high, but it quickly retracted in the following hours.
Most altcoins, including SOL, APT, LDO, and OKB, have also experienced significant drops of over 5%.
Bitcoin’s Failed Attempt at $29K
The leading cryptocurrency climbed to $28,800 mid-week, just ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision on whether or not to increase interest rates. Many experts believed the Fed would reverse its policy as local banks struggled to cope with the high rates.
However, this was not the case, and the central bank raised the key rates by 25 basis points during its second yearly FOMC meeting. This caused risk-on assets, such as bitcoin, to decline sharply.
Within hours, cryptocurrency plummeted over $2,000 to just above $26,500. Despite this, it rebounded and rose above $28,000 by Friday, rallying to just above $29,000 (on Bitstamp) for the first time since June last year.
However, it was unsuccessful, and the subsequent rejection caused the asset to suffer a sharp drop. Currently, BTC is struggling beneath $27,500, with its market cap dropping back down to $530 billion. Its market dominance has risen slightly and now stands at over 46%.
ARB Experiences 20% Drop
Aside from the FOMC meeting, the cryptocurrency community’s focus in the previous week was on the highly anticipated Arbitrum airdrop. The token finally launched on Thursday, and it was very volatile before calming down on Friday at around $1.5. Nevertheless, ARB has fallen over 20% in the past 24 hours and is currently trading at $1.2.
On a daily scale, Stacks is another significant loser, having dropped by 14% and is currently trading below $1. More losses are apparent from APT, LDO, OKB, FIL, and SOL, all experiencing over 6% drops.
The larger-cap altcoins have also declined, although in a more moderate manner. Ethereum is at $1,750 after a 2.5% daily decline. Ripple is among the few exceptions with sizeable gains, having risen by 4%.
Overall, the total crypto market cap has fallen by approximately $20 billion in a day to $1.150 trillion.
