In brief
- Bitcoin topped $109,600 on Wednesday, its highest price in three weeks.
- Ethereum jumped nearly 8% while Dogecoin rose even higher.
- Investors appear upbeat about the potential for a Fed rate cut ahead.
Dogecoin, Ethereum, and other altcoins spearheaded a surge in crypto prices that included a three-week high for Bitcoin as investors grew more optimistic about the widening embrace of digital assets products.
DOGE led a spike in larger meme coins, recently rising more than 8% over the past 24 hours, according to crypto markets data provider CoinGecko, to a price of $0.171. The eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap regained ground lost over the past month.
Ethereum (ETH), meanwhile, was recently trading above $2,590, a nearly 8% gain over the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin was changing hands above $109,200, a more than 3% gain since Tuesday, same time. It topped $109,000 earlier in the day for the first time in three weeks, and proceeded to top out above $109,600.
At its current price, Bitcoin is just over 2% away from its all-time high mark of $111,814 set in May.
"Bitcoin is in the passenger seat today and altcoins are leading the market higher," Zach Pandl, head of research at crypto asset manager Grayscale, told Decrypt in an email. "Recent crypto exchange traded product (ETP) approvals may be raising investor confidence that TradFi capital will its way into altcoins
Pandl noted that increasing U.S. regulatory clarity was likely drawing "more users and capital into the crypto ecosystem."
He added that although asset valuations were within their recent ranges, "We expect new highs for many tokens in the second half of this year."
The market spike came as U.S. President Donald Trump lauded a new trade agreement with Vietnam that would open access to American manufacturers. Later in the day, crypto payments firm Ripple confirmed that it has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to obtain a national bank charter.
Investors have also been more upbeat about a potential Federal Reserve interest rate cut after dovish remarks by central bank officials in recent days.
SEC Hits Pause on Grayscale's XRP, Solana and Cardano ETF Conversion
Put away those champagne bottles—the SEC hasn’t greenlit trading for a Grayscale ETF focused not just on Bitcoin and Ethereum, but also altcoins including XRP, Solana, and Cardano… at least, not quite yet. On Tuesday, the Wall Street regulator issued an order finding that it had good cause to approve ETF conversion for the Grayscale product, dubbed the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund (GDLC), on an accelerated basis. Quietly attached to the order, however, was a letter from SEC leadership stay...
The tech-focused Nasdaq and S&P 500 both finished the day up less than a percentage point Wednesday. Both indexes hit record highs earlier in the week.
But macroeconomic uncertainties continued to swirl. Trump's proposed budget has run into fierce headwinds in the House of Representatives, delaying its passage. Trade negotiations with China and other countries remain entangled and the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are unresolved.
On Tuesday, net flows to spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds fell into negative territory on Tuesday, breaking a 15-day streak of strong gains–a sign of investors' lingering concerns.
Ripple Follows Circle in Bid for US Banking License
Crypto payments firm Ripple confirmed Wednesday that it has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to obtain a national bank charter. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse shared the news via X on Wednesday, following a report from the Wall Street Journal. "True to our long-standing compliance roots, Ripple is applying for a national bank charter from the OCC," he wrote. "If approved, we would have both state (via NYDFS) and federal oversight, a new (and unique!) be...
In a message to Decrypt, Joe DiPasquale, the CEO of crypto fund manager BitBull Capital, wrote that broader risk assets had perked up "as rate cut hopes come back into focus."
"It’s not a huge fundamental shift–more like positioning and sentiment catching a tailwind after weeks of consolidation," he wrote.
But he added: "Crypto often thrives on a mix of uncertainty and liquidity bets. Traders seem to be looking past geopolitical and fiscal risks, focusing instead on the prospect of looser monetary policy, and the resilience BTC has shown above key support levels. Macro risks are still there, but the market is currently pricing in more of the potential upside than the downside–at least for now."
Edited by Andrew Hayward
