Bitcoin (BTC) has regained the $105,000 price point, rising 5.1% in the last 24 hours. At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $105,505, and the memecoin sector saw a 10% increase.
BTC had fallen last week after strong labor market data in the US. Between January 7 and 13, its price dropped 10%, from around $101,000 to below $90,000. However, US consumer price index data for December came in as expected, showing a 0.4% monthly increase. This led to hopes that the US might cut interest rates this year, boosting investor confidence and pushing BTC's price up by 9%.
Altcoins also saw gains. XRP hit a new all-time high on January 16, surpassing its previous peak of $3.40. Ethereum (ETH) rose 4.4% to $3,506.11, Solana (SOL) increased by 2.2% to $218.24, and BNB grew 1.6% to $726.72.
Memecoins were the biggest winners. Among the top 20 cryptos by market cap, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) led the charge, gaining 8.5% and 8.9%, respectively. The memecoin sector grew 10%, well above the market average of 5.7%. Popcat (POPCAT), a memecoin, saw the highest gain of nearly 19%. Other notable gains were seen in Solana-based Bonk (BONK) with a 13% rise and Dogwifhat (WIF) up by 5.5%. Pepe (PEPE) rose 12%.
Tokens related to decentralized exchanges (DEXs) for derivatives trading were the second-best performers, increasing by an average of 8.1%. Popular sectors like artificial intelligence (AI) and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) also outperformed, rising 6.4% and 6.8%, respectively.
On the other hand, tokens linked to centralized exchanges and real-world asset (RWA) protocols saw smaller gains, with increases of 5.6% and 3.8%.
