As investors increased their bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve will soon halt its aggressive monetary tightening campaign, major cryptocurrency bitcoin broke the crucial $30,000 mark for the first time in 10 months on Tuesday. This move added to the cryptocurrency’s consistent increases.

Bitcoin last traded 2% higher at $30,262 after reaching a height of $30,438 in Asian trade. After climbing by 23% in March, it has increased by around 6% since the beginning of the month.

The rise in token prices comes in response to Friday’s closely-watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, which indicated that employers kept up a robust rate of hiring in March, indicating that the economy was remained resilient.

However, market expectations have increased that the Fed is unlikely to raise interest rates much higher for longer as it attempts to reduce pressure on the industry, following the instability in the banking sector caused by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last month.

“The reason behind the broad-based rally in crypto is traders’ optimism toward central banks’ monetary policy,” said Tina Teng, markets analyst at CMC Markets.

“Bets for a sooner Fed pivot on rate hikes have been dramatically strengthened following the bank turmoil in early March.”

The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether, was close to its eight-month high reached last week of $1,942.50. It last moved up 0.75% to $1,925.80.

Crypto investors are eyeing this week’s significant Ethereum blockchain update, which will give them access to more than $33 billion in ether money, with great anticipation.

The software update, called Shapella, would allow market participants to redeem their “staked ether”—coins they have locked up on the network for the past three years in exchange for interest.

(Adapted from BreCorder.com)

Categories: Economy & Finance, Strategy, Uncategorized