First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Stays Above $40,000 While Ether Bounces on Testnet Success

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By Shaurya Malwa

The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) hiked rates by 0.25% on Wednesday as expected.

Fed chair Jerome Powell signaled the U.S. economy was “very strong” and could handle monetary tightening, causing a jump in equities. Meanwhile, the Bank of England holds its policy today, and is expected to raise interest rates to their pre-Covid levels.

U.S. futures shed 0.51% in European hours while crude oil jumped 4% to near $100. Europe’s Stoxx 600 rose 0.22%, while Asian markets added a second day of gains with Hong Kong’s Hang Sang index rising 7% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 increasing 3.46%.

Bitcoin added nearly 4% over the past 24 hours to trade at $41,640 before traders took profits. Ether added 4.7% to weekly highs of $2,790, while Terra’s LUNA lost 0.6% in 24 hours.

Investors tied ether’s gains to successful testing on the Ethereum network ahead of its move to a proof of stake network.

“Ethereum showed bullish movements on the back of its successful merge on the Kiln testnet, a fundamental milestone in its path toward the transition to proof of stake in the course of the year,” said Fabio Pezzotti, founder of crypto investment firm Iconium, in a Telegram message”We expect the main assets to gain momentum amid positive developments regarding a ceasefire in Ukraine, which would likely revert the bearish trends of the last few months,” he added.

Meanwhile, some analysts said strength in bitcoin was buoyed by positive sentiment for the asset among traders.

“Since the last days of February, there has been a solid support line on the declines under $38,000, “explained Alex Kuptsikevich, market analyst at FxPro, in an email to CoinDesk. “And this is bullish strength, reflecting that long-term buyer interest has migrated from $30,000 to $38,000 due to inflation and geopolitical tensions.”