Bitcoin (BTC) pushed above $80,000 as U.S. markets opened Friday, recovering the ground it lost after this week's Federal Reserve rate increase.
Key Points:
- Bitcoin crossed $80,000 at the U.S. open after sliding toward $75,000 earlier in the week.
- Shares of Strategy, Coinbase and Circle climbed between 5% and 8% alongside the coin.
- The Federal Reserve raised rates a quarter point Wednesday, its first increase in more than three years.
Bitcoin Retakes $80,000
The advance picked up speed as the U.S. session began, live coverage of crypto trading showed. Hours earlier the coin had changed hands just below $78,000, after touching $75,972 during Thursday's U.S. hours and recovering the whole of that overnight drop. The total value of the crypto market rose 2% to roughly $2.66 trillion.
Crypto equities moved with it, as Strategy gained 7.5% in early trading, Coinbase rose 5.5% and Circle, which issues the USDC (USDC) stablecoin, added 5.7%.
Two events had knocked the market lower earlier in the week, starting when the Senate refused to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on Sept. 15, rejecting the procedural motion 49-50. The Fed then lifted its target range by a quarter point to 3.75% to 4%, its first increase since July 2023. The Bank of Japan followed overnight, lifting its own benchmark rate to a 31-year high.
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Butterfill Sees $80,000 Ceiling
James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, said a decisive break above $80,000 looks unlikely without a clear improvement in the inflation outlook or a shift in policy expectations. He argued the central bank's forecasts matter more than the increase itself, and those forecasts put the median policy rate at 4.1% for both 2026 and 2027, against June projections of 3.8% and 3.6%.
Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro, expects profit-taking into the weekend to delay any run at the top of the coin's range near $82,000.
Mitchell Askew of Blockware Intelligence read the week differently, saying the muted reaction to two pieces of bad news points to sellers who have already cleared out. Fabian Dori, chief investment officer at Sygnum, said rising yields are not automatically bearish for assets held as a store of value.
Bitcoin's September Swings
September has been quiet for a month that usually punishes the coin. Bitcoin is down about 1.5% since the start of the month and remains up roughly 32% for the quarter, which would leave it with its first positive quarterly close since the third quarter of 2025.
The path there was rough. Bitcoin rallied 25% in August to around $81,000, then gave back part of that after a jobs report showed 162,000 positions added against forecasts of 55,000, a reading that pushed September hike odds to roughly 60%. It slipped below $74,900 on Tuesday, then rose in each of the three sessions that followed.
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