Although the Fed didn’t lower the interest rates, bitcoin’s price actually reacted well following the meeting and shot up to a multi-week peak of over $87,500 where it faced some resistance.

Many altcoins are also well in the green, led by XRP after Ripple’s victory in the legal case against the US SEC.

BTC Above $85K

Last week didn’t go all that well for the largest cryptocurrency, but it had managed to recover some ground by the time the weekend arrived and stood calmly at around $84,000. Following some volatility on Sunday due to large short positions on Hyperliquid, the asset was rejected at $85,000 at the start of the current business week and slumped to $81,200 on Tuesday.

Nevertheless, it recovered two grand by Wednesday in anticipation of the second FOMC meeting for the year. Once that took place and it became known that the US Fed would not change the key interest rates, BTC reacted with immediate volatility, going up and down by $1,000.

Ultimately, though, the cryptocurrency spiked in the following hours and tapped $87,500 for the first time since March 7. It has failed to maintain its run and now sits below $86,000, but it’s still 2.5% up on the day.

Its market capitalization has risen to $1.7 trillion on CG, while its dominance over the alts has taken another minor hit and is down to 58.4%.

XRP on the Rise

The other big news affecting the crypto market yesterday was the statement by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who said on X that the US SEC would drop its legal case against the company he runs after more than four years. The native token reacted immediately, with a price surge from $2.3 to $2.6 before retracing to around $2.5.

Other notable gainers from the larger-cap alts include SOL (5%), SUI (5.5%), and UNI (8%). ETH, BNB, ADA, DOGE, LINK, and XLM are also in the green but in a more modest fashion.

The total crypto market cap has added around $70 billion since yesterday and is up to $2.9 trillion on CG.