Bitcoin briefly touches $76,000 ahead of key economic decisions this week

Bitcoin climbed as high as $76,000 on Binance on Monday, with investors piling into digital assets ahead of a pivotal stretch of global macro events, including US inflation data, the Federal Reserve’s updated “dot plot,” and a policy decision from the Bank of Japan.

The largest digital asset was trading at around $75,157 at press time, its highest level since early February, after reclaiming the $74,000 level earlier in the day.

Gains were spread across several major tokens. In the last 24 hours, Ethereum jumped about 17%, while privacy-focused token Zcash surged roughly 20%. XRP rose 14% to nearly $1.6, and Solana climbed 12% to around $96.

Lower-cap tokens, including Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET), Pepe, and MemeCore (M), also performed well.

The rise in prices helped lift the total market capitalization of digital assets by 4% over the past 24 hours to about $2.6 trillion.

Despite the rally in digital assets, sentiment remains cautious.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index still sits in the “fear” zone, though it has rebounded from last week’s “extreme fear” reading, according to data from Alternative.me.

Macro compression creates volatility window

Investors are focusing on upcoming inflation data and monetary policy signals from major central banks.

The US Producer Price Index is due Wednesday morning and will provide an updated reading on inflation at the factory gate following last week’s consumer price report.

Economists are monitoring whether higher energy costs, linked to tensions in the Middle East, are reflected in producer prices.

Later Wednesday, the Fed will announce its latest policy decision. The central bank is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged.

Markets will instead focus on the central bank’s updated Summary of Economic Projections for clues on whether officials still anticipate rate cuts later in 2026.

Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to hold a press conference shortly after the policy statement is released.

The Bank of Japan is expected to announce its policy decision later Wednesday in the US.

The central bank is expected to keep its policy rate at about 0.75%, though traders are watching for signals that policymakers could consider raising rates to around 1% this year as the yen weakens and global inflation pressures persist.