In Thursday’s trading, the cryptocurrency markets saw gains as Chair Jerome Powell hedged on the potential end of the rate-hiking cycle and the US Federal Reserve held steady with interest rates.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged as decision-makers grappled with whether financial conditions were already stringent enough to contain inflation or if additional restraint was necessary in light of the economy’s persistent outperformance.

Following a two-day policy meeting, Powell stated that, in light of the current uncertainties, it would be prudent to keep the Fed’s benchmark overnight interest rate in the current range of 5.25% to 5.50% while monitoring changes in job and price data until the next policy meeting in December.

In the meantime, the global cryptocurrency market cap increased by 2.45% to reach over $1.3 trillion in the past day following the Fed’s announcement.

With its largest peer, Ethereum, trading at $1,837, up 1.9%, Bitcoin was trading 2.5% higher at $35,308.

Since the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the U.S. Federal Reserve said that interest rates will remain constant at 5.25%–5.50% as expected, bitcoin has been trading above the $35,500 threshold. Because of this, there has been a bullish feeling in the market and a steady increase in the price of Bitcoin over the past day.

Now, traders are waiting for Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report from the US Labour Department.

Solana rose more than 12%, making it the top gainer among other popular crypto assets. While BNB, XRP, Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Shiba Inu climbed 2-3%, Cardano, Polygon, Polkadot, and Avalanche surged over 6% apiece.

Currently, DeFi’s total volume is $6.12 billion, or 10.34% of the 24-hour volume of the whole cryptocurrency market. At $53.02 billion, the total volume of all stablecoins represents 89.62% of the 24-hour volume of the cryptocurrency market.

The largest cryptocurrency in the world, Bitcoin, saw a spike in market capitalization to $689 billion in the past day. Currently, 52.77% of the market is made up of Bitcoin, according to CoinMarketCap. The volume of BTC fell 68% to $25.8 billion in the last day.

From a technical standpoint, BTC closed the daily candle above the critical $35,000 resistance level, demonstrating a positive mood. Even though there could be a little retreat, the trajectory seems to be heading towards the resistance levels between $39,800 and $40,000.

To allow for more upward movement, however, ETH still needs to overcome its 2023 resistance levels, which are about $2,020 and $2,140, it continued.