Bitcoin rose 0.88% over the past 24 hours to $76,621 as traders responded positively to the Federal Reserve’s projections for limited additional tightening. Zcash outperformed the broader market, surging 23% to a record after Paradigm disclosed its ZEC holdings.
Bitcoin reached $76,621 on Thursday, representing a 0.60% gain since midnight UTC and a 0.88% increase over 24 hours. The move came as markets appeared to look beyond the Fed’s first rate hike in more than three years and instead focused on projections showing only one additional increase. Ether gained 1.1% to $2,444.36, while Solana advanced 2% to $100.57.
The Federal Open Market Committee raised its benchmark target by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4%. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation remained “too high … for too long” and noted that recent readings had not provided evidence of a meaningful improvement in underlying inflation trends.
Despite the rate increase, traders took some comfort from the Fed’s latest “dot plot.” The median projection places the policy rate at 4.1% at the end of both 2026 and 2027. That outlook indicates one more 25-basis-point hike rather than a prolonged series of increases.
The broader risk market also moved higher. The Dollar Index fell 0.17%, while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1.04% and S&P 500 futures gained 0.81%. Gold increased 1.02%, and silver climbed 1.52%. Meanwhile, the two-year Treasury yield declined 2 basis points to 4.71% after reaching its highest level since 2024 during the previous session.
Crypto followed the wider risk-on move rather than leading it. That marked a shift from earlier in the week, when digital assets had traded more independently of equities. Gains were broad across the sector but were strongest among more speculative tokens. Of the CoinDesk 100 constituents, 94 were higher over 24 hours. The small-cap CoinDesk 80 gained 4.7%, compared with a 1.2% advance for the bitcoin-heavy CoinDesk 5.
ETF flows, however, remain weak. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $295.98 million in outflows on Wednesday, following $450.33 million in withdrawals the previous day, according to SoSoValue. The seven-session run since Sept. 8 has now produced more than $1 billion in cumulative outflows, reducing total net assets to $95.19 billion.
Bitcoin remains 6.9% below its Sept. 4 monthly high of $82,284.
Derivatives Positioning
Aggregate open interest in crypto futures climbed to $64.4 billion from $59.7 billion on Monday. Twenty-four-hour trading volume reached $112.6 billion, while $214.3 million worth of positions were liquidated, according to Coinalyze. The rise in open interest suggests traders have been increasing exposure during the recovery rather than merely closing bearish positions.
Bitcoin open interest increased 1.41% to $26.6 billion, while ether open interest rose 1.39% to $16.7 billion. Ether-related liquidations totaled $60.7 million, compared with $42.4 million for Bitcoin.
Zcash showed the strongest shift in derivatives positioning. Open interest for ZEC jumped 37.84% over 24 hours to $2.2 billion, while liquidations reached $28.9 million. Its funding rate was -0.0253%, indicating that short traders were paying long traders even as ZEC established new record highs. Traders have repeatedly positioned against Zcash’s advance during the month, leading to a series of short squeezes.
Bitcoin’s funding rate remains positive and is increasing. The aggregated rate reached 0.0070%, with the predicted rate at 0.0082%. Rates differed substantially between exchanges, ranging from 0.0153% on Kraken to -0.0003% on Huobi.
Coinalyze’s long/short ratio stood at 1.13, showing a tilt toward bullish positioning. The ratio has remained positive for eight consecutive days after spending three weeks below 1.
Token Market
Zcash rose 23% over 24 hours to approximately $1,369, reaching a new record. The rally followed a post by Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, who disclosed that the investment firm owns ZEC and called the cryptocurrency “a private complement to Bitcoin.” Huang also backed continued funding for Zcash developers.
The price surge came after Zcash holders approved a governance proposal to reduce block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds while retaining the cryptocurrency’s Bitcoin-style halving schedule. The move puts Zcash’s market capitalization at $23.2 billion.
Monero failed to follow the rally among privacy-focused cryptocurrencies. XMR declined 0.97% to $494.14 and was down 1.6% over 24 hours. Zcash’s market capitalization is now twice that of Monero, widening the gap between the two assets.
NEAR Protocol recorded the largest 24-hour gain among mid-cap tokens, climbing 16% to $2.82, with 7.6% of that increase coming since midnight UTC. Venice Token rose 14% over 24 hours to $25.45, taking the AI platform’s token back above its level before Tuesday’s Clarity Act vote.
Within the CoinDesk 80, Pump.fun gained 7.9% to $0.003926, leading the index. Lighter (LIT), the perpetuals exchange token, advanced 7% to $4.92, while Fartcoin rose 6.4%. The gains indicate renewed interest in speculative tokens after traders had concentrated more heavily on Bitcoin following the August short squeeze.
CoinMarketCap’s “Altcoin Season” indicator also improved, reaching 39/100 after remaining around 32/100 for much of the week.
