The cryptocurrency market experienced significant gains on Thursday, driven by a positive U.S.-U.K. trade deal announcement, despite President Donald Trump’s continued pressure on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, surpassed \$100,000 for the first time since February, trading at over \$101,289 after a 5% increase in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve maintained interest rates, which angered Trump. He has been urging Powell to reduce borrowing costs for weeks and even threatened to dismiss him. During remarks at the White House regarding the trade deal with Great Britain, Trump criticized Powell, stating, “The chairman of the Fed, Jerome, if he would lower interest rates… like numerous other countries, it would be like jet fuel. It would be great.” Trump added, “He doesn’t want to do it because he’s not in love with me.” Earlier, Trump referred to Powell as a “fool” on his Truth Social platform.
Historically, Bitcoin performs well in low-interest-rate environments, as investors tend to shift towards ‘risk-on’ assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies. Major equity indexes also rose, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq increasing more than 1%, fueled by optimism regarding the resolution of Trump’s trade disputes.
President Trump encouraged investors to buy stocks during a Thursday press conference. Other digital assets surged as well, including Ethereum, which broke \$2,053 for the first time since early March, rising over 14% from the previous day. XRP and Solana increased by more than 6% and 10%, respectively. Conversely, traditional safe-haven asset gold declined by over 2%.
— new from Decrypt