Bitcoin, ether surge to highest since FTX downfall as inflation eases

Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) and ethereum ( ETH-USD ) extended their year-to-date rallies and accelerated to the highest levels since retreating in early November 2022 when the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX ( FTT-USD ) was just starting to roil the market. Helped in part by December's slowdown in consumer price inflation, bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) climbed 7.5% to $18.86K at 2:55 p.m. ET, reaching the highest mark since Nov. 8 (three days before FTX filed for Chapter 11 protection). Similarly, ether ( ETH-USD ) perked up 6.1% to $1.42K. The gains across major tokens pushed up the global crypto market cap by 5.1% to $905.3B, though still down significantly from the roughly $3T November 2021 peak, according to CoinMarketCap data . Other cryptos deep in the green include: cardano ( ADA-USD ) +4.8% , polygon ( MATIC-USD ) +5.5% , solana ( SOL-USD ) +4.3% , polkadot ( DOT-USD ) +4.7% and shiba inu ( SHIB-USD ) +6.5% . The continued cooling in CPI data, the latest of which showed headline inflation of 6.5% Y/Y in December fell from the 7.1% rise in November, fueled speculation that the Federal Reserve will keep downshifting its interest-rate increases this year. Markets are largely expecting the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee to lift the benchmark rate by the standard quarter-point increment at the Jan. 31-Feb. 1 meeting. Crypto-related stocks clocked in even bigger gains. Among the biggest intraday winners were Greenidge Generation Holdings ( NASDAQ: GREE ) +65% , Bitfarms ( NASDAQ: BITF ) +36.3% , Marathon Digital Holdings ( NASDAQ: MARA ) +27.2% , Bakkt ( NYSE: BKKT ) +37% , Hut 8 Mining ( NASDAQ: HUT ) +21% and Silvergate Capital ( NYSE: SI ) +17.7% . With 2023 looking more and more like the year of disinflation, Seeking Alpha contributor The Digital Trend thinks bitcoin will perform well in such an environment .