At around 15:02 UTC on Wednesday (July 31), expectations of the first interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve since December 2008 seem to have had a hand in Bitcoin (BTC) clearing the $10,000 hurdle, and the altcoins are trying hard to keep up.

According to the New York Times, the Federal Reserve is “expected to cut interest rates for the first time in more than a decade, even as the economic expansion in the United States reaches record length, unemployment hovers at historic lows and consumers keep spending.” The reasons for the expected rate cut are “uncertainty around global growth and persistently low inflation.” This will be “what’s called an ‘insurance cut’ — one that central bankers are making to keep growth chugging along.”

All the excitement around the Fed’s upcoming announcement has apparently managed to help Bitcoin get its mojo back.

According to CryptoCompare, at around 15:02 UTC, Bitcoin managed to break through the $10,000 resistance level; at press time (15:31 UTC), BTC is trading at $10,060, up 3.83% in the past 24-hour period:

BTC-USD 24 Hour CC Chart - 31 July 2019.png

As for the altcoins, here is how some of the most popular ones are currently doing:

Altcoins - 24 Hour CC Chart - 31 July 2019.png

However, among the top 50 cryptoassets, the biggest gainer is Tezos (XTZ), which is trading at $1.218, up 17.91% in the past 24-hour period, mostly due to Coinbase announcing on Tuesday (July 30) that XTZ would be listed soon on Coinbase Pro:

XTZ-USD - 31 July 2019.png

Update (July 31, 06:01 UTC):

 

Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pexels.com