Bitcoin Surges to $68,000 Following Fed Interest Rate Announcement

After falling to 60,760 USD per unit, the price of bitcoin (BTC) quickly increased to 68,000 USD in just 17 hours. This increase comes after the latest session of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), where the entire cryptocurrency market recorded a total increase of 5.9%, including an increase in bitcoin up 6.8% against the US dollar.

Cryptocurrency market liquidation reached $444 million

The cryptocurrency market saw liquidations reach $444 million due to a shake-up in long and short positions. Following Tuesday’s significant downturn and the FOMC meeting, in which the US Federal Reserve maintained its current benchmark interest rate, the price of BTC increased significantly from $65,500 to $68,058 per coin.

The cryptocurrency market is vibrant with a trading volume of up to 207 billion USD, of which BTC trading contributes 72.93 billion USD to this figure. Currently, the price of BTC hovers near $68,000, trading at $67,432 per unit. Meanwhile, the most popular trading pairs for BTC are USDT, FDUSD and US dollar.

Not far behind, Circle’s USDC trading pair ranked as the fourth most popular with bitcoin, while the Korean won came in fifth, accounting for 3.36% of the day’s global trades. Among exchanges, Binance, Coinbase, Bybit, Okx and Upbit are leading in the number of bitcoin transactions by spot trading volume.

While the global average price of BTC reached 67,631 USD/unit, on South Korean cryptocurrency trading platforms Upbit and Bithumb, BTC is being traded at a higher price, reaching 74,993 USD/coin. On Wednesday, derivatives exchanges recorded a notable number of short positions being liquidated, with a total value of $151.69 million.

Related: The Highest Bitcoin Purchases in Argentina in 20 Months

At the same time, over $128 million in ETH long positions were also removed from leveraged trades. In total, during the day there were $444.66 million liquidated in the cryptocurrency market, of which $241.03 million were in long positions and $203.63 million in short positions on leading derivatives exchanges, in one major shake-up. The price of BTC was back at $67,877.

According to data from intheblock.com, 96% of BTC owners are currently recording profits. Over the past week, inflows reached $19.79 billion while outflows were $20 billion on exchanges. Additionally, this week saw BTC transactions surpass $100,000, reaching a total value of $170 billion.