Bitcoin, crypto boosted by Fed relief rally, investors 'bracing for the worst' get surprised

Digital coins extended gains on Thursday after the Fed stepped up its taper, and laid the foundation for a tightening cycle that could bring as many as three rate hikes in 2022. Normally, cryptocurrency benefits from loose monetary policy and its inflationary side-effects; but at least for now, investors are taking the longer view.

Bitcoin $Bitcoin(BTC.CC)$ , barely a week removed from an ugly selloff that dragged it below $50,000, rallied by over 2% on the day.

Other digital coins that power smart contract layer-1 blockchains like Ethereum $Ethereum(ETH.CC)$ — which helps power the blockchain for the majority of decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other smart-contract applications like Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) — Solana (SOL1-USD), Terra (LUNA1-USD) and Avalanche (AVAX-USD) are also posting big gains.

Part of the content is taken from Yahoo.