Bitcoin price briefly breaks $75,000 as markets brace for Fed meeting

Traders linked the intraday spike to derivatives positioning rather than new spot buying. The closure of large $60,000 put options prompted market makers to purchase Bitcoin to rebalance, after which prices fell back below a level around $74,400 that many had been watching as support.

Major tokens advanced over the past seven days. Ether rose 13.3% to $2,316, XRP gained 11% to $1.53, Solana added 9.7% to $93.92, Dogecoin increased 9.5% to $0.10, and BNB climbed 5% to $676. The rally marked the broadest stretch of gains since before the Iran conflict began.

Fund flows into spot Bitcoin ETFs strengthened for a third straight week. Last week, net inflows reached about $767 million, reversing a five-week period earlier this year when more than $3 billion exited the products.

The performance gap with gold has narrowed in recent weeks. Year to date through mid-March, the GLD gold fund returned about 16% while the IBIT Bitcoin fund was down roughly 19%, but BTC has outpaced gold by 13.2% since early March. Over the past six months, the 90-day correlation between the two shifted from -0.27 to +0.29.

The Fed is widely expected to keep the federal funds rate at 3.5% to 3.75%, with market pricing indicating a better than 95% chance of no change. Updated rate projections and Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference are due March 18. Crude traded above $100 a barrel, and February registered an estimated net loss of 92,000 U.S. jobs, framing the policy discussion.

XRP activity stood out within the broader market. The token moved above $1.50 and reclaimed the No. 4 spot by market value at about $93.4 billion. On Binance, open interest in XRP futures has risen 59% since late October to roughly 353 million XRP, still below levels seen before last October’s crypto market crash, as the token tests the $1.50 to $1.60 range.