After FOMC, Bitcoin Retakes $35K as Solana's SOL Drives a Sharp Altcoin Rally

The Federal Reserve did not reveal any surprises on Wednesday when it decided to postpone changes to its policies but reiterated its commitment to managing inflation.

Altcoins saw a strong rally throughout the Wednesday session, driven by solana's (SOL) 16% increase, while bitcoin (BTC) saw a late rally that propelled its price to a new 17-year high above $35,500.

As of the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at about $35,400, up 1.7% from the previous day and decisively breaching beyond the $35,000 mark that had been holding back its ascent over the previous two weeks.

Solana (SOL) surged 16% higher to a 14-month high in the last 24 hours, extending its incredible ascent. Layer 1 blockchain native tokens had increases of 6% to 10%, including Avalanche's (AVAX), Polkadot's (DOT), and Near Protocol's (NEAR).

The October laggards, decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens, also saw a surge, with aave (AAVE) and uniswap (UNI) rising 10% and 15%, respectively.

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ether (ETH), was up about 2%, surpassing bitcoin by a little margin.

Over the last day, the CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), which serves as a stand-in for a large basket of digital assets, increased by 2%.

Examining the negative, SafeMoon's token SFM fell more than 50% today after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges for an unregistered security sale and the Department of Justice (DOJ) detained the project's executives on suspicion of fraud.

FOMC Gathering

As was largely expected, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the U.S. Federal Reserve maintained its benchmark fed funds rate range on Wednesday, at 5.25%–5.50%.