Cardano Pumps 16%, Bitcoin Could Pop to $100K After Fed Rate Cut

• Cardano's ADA has surged 16% in the past 24 hours, driven by marketwide increases, renewed interest in decentralized finance and growing appeal to retail investors.
• Bitcoin has traders eyeing $100,000 in the near term due to recent highs and the Federal Reserve's rate cut. Significant inflows into bitcoin ETFs signaled bullish market sentiment.
• Still, post-election market adjustments and policy uncertainties may lead to short-term pullbacks.

Cardano ADA$0.4125 has surged 16% in the past 24 hours, leading gains among major cryptocurrencies, as traders look to a $100,00 price for bitcoin BTC$89,036.07 in the near term following the Federal Reserve's interest-rate cut on Thursday.

ADA rose above 42 cents in European morning hours Friday to reach levels last seen in late July. Recent price growth catalysts include a marketwide rally and resurging interest in decentralized finance (DeFi) that also spurred gains in ether ETH$3,034.52 and Solana’s SOL$131.68. Some observers also pointed to ADA's appeal among retail investors.

Other majors were mixed after a two-day rally that saw BTC set a record high above $76,000. BTC rose 1.4% with xrp XRP$2.0312 and BNB Chain’s BNB also gaining less than 2%. ETH advanced more than 4%, while SOL jumped 7.5%. The broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) Index rose 3.5%.

The Fed cut interest rates by 25 basis points on Thursday, as expected. Lower interest rates typically support risk assets like bitcoin by increasing liquidity and weakening the dollar.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell, speaking for the first time since President-elect Donald Trump's decisive victory, said that the election results would have no effect on the central bank's policymaking in the near-term, quelling fears of a hawkish surprise.

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. recorded over $1.3 billion in net inflows on Thursday, breaking a March record of $1.1 billion, led by BlackRock’s IBIT.

Against that backdrop, traders are ebullient about bitcoin's prospects.

“In the short term, 100k will be the next major level of interest because of the symbolic nature of the number and the digit change,” Presto Research investment analyst Min Jung said in a note to CoinDesk.”Looking beyond that, we believe the U.S. could eventually add Bitcoin to its balance sheet—maybe as part of a 'strategic Bitcoin reserve' or something similar, but likely under a more low-key name.

“With this in mind, our target is around the 110k range,” Jung added, referring to Trump’s campaign promise he would hoard bitcoin in the national treasury.

Alex Kuptsikevich, senior market analyst at FxPro, mirrored the sentiment.

“The first cryptocurrency rallied sharply on the US election results but is now defending its top and is likely to consolidate its strength before the next surge," Kuptsikevich said in an email to CoinDesk. "In general, we stick to the idea that the new highs have triggered a powerful new growth wave with the potential to rise to $100-110K within 2-3 months without any significant shakeout.”

Some traders cautioned against a short-term pullback, even as they remained generally bullish on BTC.

“Investors are beginning to pull back on some 'Trump trades:' the dollar has reversed much of its post-election gains, and Treasury yields have settled back into recent ranges after a brief whipsaw,” Singapore-based crypto fund QCP Capital said in a Telegram broadcast Friday.

“As markets consider Trump’s proposed 60% tariff on China and fiscal concerns like the rising national debt, we expect BTC to carry less risk premium compared to equities, potentially positioning it to outperform other risk-on assets.”