Bitcoin traded near $76,300 on Thursday, largely unmoved a day after the Federal Reserve delivered its first interest rate hike since July 2023, while Zcash broke away from an otherwise calm crypto market with a double-digit rally.

The Fed lifted its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to a range of 3.75% to 4% on Wednesday, a move that all 12 members of the Federal Open Market Committee backed in a unanimous vote. Traders had priced in a 93% probability of the hike heading into the decision, according to CME's FedWatch tool, which derives its odds from federal funds futures.

Bitcoin briefly touched $76,499 after the announcement before settling near $76,300, roughly flat on the day. The broader crypto market capitalization stood at $2.63 trillion at last check, holding above the $2.6 trillion mark.

Wall Street's reaction was sharper than crypto's. The Dow sank about 1.2% and the S&P 500 slid between 0.4% and 0.5% on Wednesday. Earlier in the week, the 10-year Treasury yield had topped 5%, its highest level since 2007, as oil pushed above $100 a barrel amid the conflict between Israel and Iran.

Higher rates make Treasurys and cash more attractive relative to assets like Bitcoin and gold that pay no yield, and a hawkish hike tends to strengthen the dollar, creating a double headwind for risk assets broadly.

Those pressures eased by Thursday morning, which helps explain crypto's calm. Long-end Treasury yields dropped roughly two basis points and equity futures turned higher after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's inflation-fighting message reassured bond markets that no disorderly yield spike was coming, while oil retreated slightly from its highs.

Sentiment gauges reflected the muted tone. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index, which runs on a 0-to-100 scale, read 50, exactly in “neutral” territory — a significant drop from the “extreme greed” readings it marked just three weeks ago.

Zcash breaks from the pack

One asset moved far more than the rest. Zcash jumped as much as 23% to trade near $1,425, a multi-year high, after Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang disclosed on X that his venture firm holds ZEC and has invested in the Zcash Open Development Lab.

Zcash launched in 2016 and uses zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptographic technique that allows transactions to be verified without revealing details such as the sender, recipient or amount — the privacy feature that underpins its appeal as a shielded alternative to transparent blockchains.

Huang called Zcash “a private complement to Bitcoin” and argued that its inflation-funded developer fund deserves continued backing as AI-driven cyber threats and quantum computing advance.

The disclosure echoed a May rally, when Zcash jumped 37% after Multicoin Capital's Tushar Jain revealed a position built since February, calling the token “the cleanest way” to express a privacy thesis rooted in wealth-seizure fears.

ZEC has gained roughly 160% over the past month, compared with Bitcoin's 18.2% climb in the same stretch, and is up nearly 3,000% over the last 365 days, making it the standout performer among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap this week.

The rest of the majors

Gains were more modest elsewhere among the top 50. BNB traded near $724, up 2%, while Solana held just above $100 for a 3.3% gain. XRP lagged at $1.29, up 2% on the day but still down more than 6% for the week after crypto's Clarity Act failed its Senate cloture vote days earlier.

The bill would have legalized most crypto activity in the United States and would have delivered more clarity for altcoins such as Solana and XRP than for Bitcoin, which is widely recognized to stand apart from a regulatory perspective. Cloture is the Senate's supermajority vote to cut off debate and move a bill toward final passage.

Roughly $373 million in crypto liquidations hit the market over 24 hours, with short positions accounting for the larger share as prices ground higher into the rate decision. Liquidations are the forced closures of leveraged positions that occur when price moves leave a trader's collateral insufficient to keep the trade open.

The Fed's median projection puts the federal funds rate at 4.1% by the end of 2026, leaving room for one more quarter-point move, according to the central bank's summary of economic projections. Its next meeting is scheduled for October 27-28.