Bitcoin nears $81,000 ahead of Fed decision as ZEC jumps 8%
Majors outpaced bitcoin across the board as tech stocks extended a climb.
Bitcoin climbed nearly 2% to just under $81,000 as of Wednesday Asian morning hours, clawing back the weekend’s slip to nearly $79,000 as traders braced for the Federal Reserve’s rate decision later in the day.
ZEC led the majors, jumping 8% to about $1,320 and putting it back above $1,300 after Monday’s selloff. HYPE added nearly 5% to about $81. XRP and DOGE rose roughly 3%, while ether gained 2% to just above $2,350 and SOL climbed about 2% to $102. BNB rose 1%, and TRX lagged with a gain of less than 1%, according to CoinDesk data.
The bounce came a day after Galaxy told investors that now is the time to accumulate bitcoin.
“We think the bear market ended in June and that bitcoin is in the accumulation phase that has preceded every prior advance,” Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy, said in the note.
Thorn said the bottom likely came in June, when bitcoin traded under $58,000. He pointed to bitcoin’s move back above its 50-week moving average — the average of its last 50 weekly closes, which traders use to judge the longer-term trend — along with lighter selling pressure and rising U.S. debt. That’s a confident call for a market that has struggled to hold $80,000.
Traders will now be listening to Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference for any hint of a December rate hike. A hike would make borrowing more expensive and tends to pull money out of riskier assets like crypto.
Diversified RWA stablecoins sustain 5-7% yield from real credit as crypto funding compresses to ~4%. GENIUS pushes yield off-chain; TAM grows to $4B in 3 years.
Asanat Analysis — Why it matters
Bitcoin's approach to $81k coincides with anticipated Fed policy communications, suggesting market participants are pricing in expectations around rate trajectory. The timing is notable: major equities are rallying (tech stocks climbing), which typically correlates with risk-on sentiment and lower probability of aggressive Fed tightening. Bitcoin has historically moved inversely to real rate expectations rather than nominal rates alone—a sustained equity rally without inflation reacceleration would support the macro backdrop for crypto assets.
Altcoins (represented by ZEC's 8% outperformance) moving faster than bitcoin indicates selective risk appetite rather than broad flight-to-safety. Privacy coins specifically attract rotation during periods when regulatory clarity recedes or when traders rotate from macro hedges into thematic bets. This divergence—majors outpacing bitcoin—is a classic signal of capital flowing into perceived alternative-value narratives rather than bitcoin's core store-of-value thesis gaining momentum.