Crypto market today: Here’s why CAKE, HYPE, UNI prices are rising

The crypto market today was a bit upbeat as the market reflected on the latest Federal Reserve interest rate decision and the decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to end its Ripple Labs appeal. 

DeFi tokens like PancakeSwap (CAKE), Hyperliquid (HYPE), Uniswap (UNI), Sonic (S), and Chainlink (LINK) were some of the best performers. This article explores why these tokens are rising and what to expect. 

PancakeSwap, Hyperliquid, Uniswap prices chart

CAKE, HYPE, UNI, Sonic rise after FOMC decision

The main catalyst for the ongoing CAKE, HYPE, UNI, and Sonic price surge is the March Federal Reserve interest rate decision. As was widely expected, the bank left interest rates unchanged between 4.25% and 4.50%. 

The Fed rate cut led to higher prices of risk assets like stocks and cryptocurrencies. For example, the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and the Nasdaq 100 indices jumped by more than 1% after the rate decision. The US dollar index and government bond yields fell even after the SEC warned about stagflation. 

Reading between the lines, these assets jumped as Jerome Powell downplayed growing risks and hinted that tariff impacts would be transitory. He believes that this is the base case, but then warned that it was hard to predict. 

Economists agree that Donald Trump’s tariffs will impact inflation by rising prices as companies adjust their pricing. For example, a 25% tariff on imported vehicles means that automakers will have to hike prices by almost the same. The impact of these tariffs will take time to be felt as companies still have non-tariffed inventories. Bloomberg analysts said:

“The FOMC held rates steady at the March 18-19 meeting and slowed the pace of balance-sheet runoff — but the updated forecasts and dot plot betrayed little concern about the growth scare that has gripped markets.”

Rising DEX volumes

DEX tokens like CAKE, HYPE, and UNI rose as investors predicted a bottom in terms of transaction volume. 

Data compiled by DeFi Llama shows that some DEX platforms are seeing an uptick of volume after weeks of declines. 

PancakeSwap has been the market leader in this as the weekly volume jumped by almost 50% to $13.5 billion. That volume is much higher than Uniswap’s $8.7 billion and Raydium’s $2.7 billion. PancakeSwap has now handled over $53 billion in transactions in the last 30 days, compared to Uniswap’s $72.9 billion and Raydium’s $18 billion. 

HYPE price jumped after data showed that the volume in its perpetual futures network soared by almost 20%. The 24-hour volume jumped to almost $6 billion, bringing the 7-day figure to almost $30 billion. Hyperliquid is much bigger than other perpetual futures platforms like Jupiter, ApeX Protocol, and Vertex Edge. 

While Uniswap’s volume has crashed, there is a likelihood that it will start rising if the ongoing crypto recovery continues. One crypto analyst believes that the recovery will stick. In an X post, Gert van Lagen, a popular analyst, predicted that Bitcoin price will surge to $300,000 in this cycle.

The analyst cited the formation of an inverse head and shoulders pattern on the weekly chart. This pattern is made up of a head, two shoulders, and a neckline. It moved above the neckline and then retested it, which could lead to more gains. 

A strong Bitcoin price surge would be a bullish catalyst on other cryptocurrencies, which would lead to higher volume in the DEX industry. 

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