Bitcoin Round-Trips the First Fed Rate Increase Since 2023 as Zcash Runs to $1,383

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate on Wednesday for the first time since July 2023, and bitcoin traded through the decision little changed.

The vote was unanimous, against three dissents for an increase at the July meeting, and the committee's own projections now point to one more this year. Equities and gold gave back the morning's gains in the half hour after the release and closed below Tuesday. Crypto went the other way into the evening. Breadth flipped from 39 gainers at 3 p.m. to 87, and the largest move is Zcash at 19.1%.

Bitcoin last changed hands at $75,928, up 0.6% over 24 hours and down 2.7% over seven days, CoinGecko data shows. Ether was at $2,402, up 0.4% on the day and down 2.3% on the week. Zcash rose 19%, and Arbitrum 14%. Stellar added 3.1%, Solana 1.6%, BNB 1.2% and XRP 0.9%.

Total crypto market value stood at $2.68 trillion on $93.5 billion of volume, with bitcoin dominance at 56.84%, CoinGecko data shows. Weighted by market value, the 500 largest tokens rose 0.75% over 24 hours and fell 2.7% over seven days. Eighty-seven of the 123 largest non-stablecoin tokens rose, 34 fell and two were unchanged.

Twelve To Nothing

The committee raised the target range for the federal funds rate "by 1/4 percentage point to 3-3/4 to 4 percent, in support of the Federal Reserve's dual mandate," according to the statement released Wednesday afternoon. It passed by a 12-0 vote.