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Bitcoin hit $100,000 per coin again on Wednesday—bringing a number of top altcoins with it—after data dropped Wednesday showing that inflation in the U.S. was rising at an expected pace.
The biggest coin by market cap is now trading for $100,500 per coin, CoinGecko shows. It's up 5% in the past 24 hours, and nearly as much over a seven-day period.
Bitcoin had dipped below the $95,000 mark on Tuesday, sparking a slew of liquidations of long and short positions, but has gradually recovered in the time since. The leading cryptocurrency first hit the $100,000 price milestone last week, topping out at a current all-time high mark of $103,679.
Bureau of Labor Statistics figures on Wednesday showed that the core consumer price index, or CPI—which excludes food and energy prices—rose 0.3% last month, in line with analysts' expectations.
Experts now believe the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again next month as inflation is somewhat under control. U.S. equities also rose on the news.
Bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency market have typically done well when interest rates have been lower, as investors with a greater appetite for risk become more attracted to the asset.
In the altcoin market, XRP, the third-biggest digital coin by market cap, is making the most gains: its price has soared by 17% in the past day and it's now trading for $2.44.
That's a reversal from Tuesday, when the coin plunged below the $2.00 mark after rising as high as $2.82 last week—a seven-year high price for the Ripple-linked coin. The bounce-back comes amid Bitcoin's own rebound, but also Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse saying Tuesday that the company's RLUSD stablecoin is launching soon following New York regulatory approval.
This just in…we have final approval from @NYDFS for $RLUSD! Exchange and partner listings will be live soon – and reminder: when RLUSD is live, you’ll hear it from @Ripple first.
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) December 10, 2024
Elsewhere, Dogecoin, the seventh biggest coin by market cap and Elon Musk's favorite digital asset, is up nearly 9%, trading for more than $0.415. And its copycat rival, the Ethereum-based Shiba Inu, has jumped nearly 13% over the past day. Its price now stands at nearly $0.000029.
Solana is up more than 9% on the day at a current price of $229, while Cardano has jumped 13% to $1.09.
Money has flowed back into exchange-traded products like the new Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S., with a record $3.85 billion hitting vehicles giving traditional investors exposure to the crypto world last week amid Bitcoin's initial jump over the $100K mark.
Edited by Andrew Hayward