WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Fed's pause on rate cuts dampened sentiment across the crypto market resulting in overall market capitalization declining more than 2 percent in the past 24 hours. The Federal Reserve, in its first meeting of 2026 held interest rates steady at 3.50 percent to 3.75 percent as widely expected.
The Federal Open Markets Committee in its statement on Wednesday acknowledged that economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace. Nevertheless, it noted that uncertainty about the economic outlook remains elevated. The committee also noted that job gains have remained low, and the unemployment rate has shown some signs of stabilization. It however reiterated that inflation remains somewhat elevated.
The flight to metals continued even after the announcement of the Fed decision. Gold futures for April settlement jumped to a fresh peak of $5,625.89 per troy ounce, earlier in the trade. The previous best price of $5,452.80 was recorded on Wednesday. Silver futures for March settlement too touched an all-time high of $120.52 per troy ounce on Thursday.
The negative correlation of major cryptocurrencies with precious metals also continued. However, 38th ranked PAX Gold (PAXG) and 34th ranked Tether Gold (XAUt), the top ranked cryptocurrencies in the tokenized gold category mirrored the massive gains in gold prices. Both the cryptocurrencies recorded overnight gains of more than 5 percent, weekly addition of more than 14 percent and year-to-date rally of close to 28 percent.
Amidst a whipsawing dollar, the six-currency Dollar Index is trading near multi-year lows and is currently at 96.42, after ranging between 96.01 and 96.46. While the Dollar Index has declined 10.7 percent over the past year, Bitcoin has erased 15.2 percent over the past year, indicating Bitcoin's failure to act as a hedge against dollar depreciation. Gold futures, on the contrary staged an emphatic 100-percent rally over the past year. Silver added more than 280 percent and Platinum surged more than 183 percent over the past year.
Overall crypto market capitalization is currently at $2.97 trillion, erasing more than 2.5 percent overnight. More than 80 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies are trading with overnight losses of more than a percent. At the same time, only 4 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies are trading with overnight gains of more than a percent.
Bitcoin has slipped one notch to the 9th rank and Ethereum has slipped 2 notches to the 44th position in the global ranking of all assets as per market capitalization published by companiesmarketcap.com. Bitcoin's slippage saw it declining below Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company which is now ranked 8th overall.
In addition to Gold (market capitalization: $38.5 trillion) and Silver (market capitalization: $6.6 trillion), 4 corporates viz NVIDIA (market capitalization: $4.66 trillion); Alphabet (market capitalization: $4.1 trillion); Apple (market capitalization: $3.8 trillion) and Microsoft (market capitalization: $3.6 trillion) command a market capitalization that exceeds the overall crypto market capitalization of $2.97 trillion.
Bitcoin has slipped 2.1 percent in the past 24 hours to trade at $87,855.90. The current price is around 30 percent below the all-time high of $126,198.07 recorded on October 7, 2025. The original cryptocurrency has lost 2.3 percent in the past week and is holding on to year-to-date gains of 0.4 percent. The 24-hour trading ranged between $90,439.29 and $87,612.74.
Bitcoin Spot ETF products in the U.S. witnessed net outflows of $20 million versus net outflows of $147 million on Tuesday. iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) topped outflows with $14 million whereas Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) topped inflows with $20 million.
Ethereum has lost 3.2 percent overnight to trade at $2,927.25. The leading alternate coin is now trading 41 percent below the all-time-high of $4,953.73 recorded on August 25, 2025. The 24-hour trading ranged between $3,040.18 and $2,919.79.
Ethereum Spot ETF products in the U.S. witnessed net inflows of $28 million versus net outflows of $64 million on Monday. iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) topped with net inflows of $27 million.
4th ranked BNB lost 1.6 percent overnight resulting in price decreasing to $890.58. BNB is trading 35 percent below the all-time high of $1,370.55 touched on October 13, 2025.
5th ranked XRP shed 3.2 percent overnight to trade at $1.86, around 51 percent below the all-time high of $3.84 touched on January 4, 2018.
The price of 7th ranked Solana decreased 3.6 percent overnight to $122.66. SOL's current price is around 58 percent below its all-time-high of $294.33 recorded on January 19, 2025.
TRON ranked 8th overall however added 0.7 percent overnight and is currently changing hands at $0.2942. The trading price is 33 percent below the cryptocurrency's all-time high of $0.4407 recorded on December 4, 2024.
9th ranked Dogecoin plunged 4.3 percent overnight and is currently trading at $0.1208. DOGE is now trading 84 percent below the previous peak of $0.7376 recorded on May 8, 2021.
10th ranked Cardano also dropped 4.5 percent overnight to trade at $0.3456. ADA is currently trading 87 percent below the record high of $3.10 touched on September 2, 2021.
93rd ranked Stable (STABLE), a Layer-1 blockchain designed for real-world financial applications, institutional settlement, and consumer-scale transactions topped overnight gains among the top 100 cryptocurrencies with a gain of more than 18 percent. 52nd ranked Worldcoin (WLD), an ERC-20 token on Ethereum associated with the Worldcoin project that seeks to build the world's largest identity and financial network followed with overnight gains of more than 5 percent.
87th ranked Chiliz (CHZ) topped overnight losses among the top 100 cryptocurrencies with a decline of 11.8 percent. 19th ranked Zcash (ZEC), 66th ranked Render (RENDER), 59th ranked Pump.fun (PUMP) and 80th ranked Pudgy Penguins (PENGU), all recorded overnight losses of more than 8 percent.
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