Bitcoin jumped $700, moving above $23,600 as Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell suggested the U.S. Federal Reserve is seeing signs of waning inflation.

Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency market has held steady following the Federal Reserve’s announcement today that the central bank has hiked interest rates by 25 basis points.

Despite the success and mainstream popularity that the cryptocurrency sector and the flagship decentralized finance (DeFi) asset have achieved so far, notable critics have continued to declare Bitcoin (BTC) worthless, including four times in 2023.

In a defensive interview CEO Cathie Wood has stood by her thesis that Bitcoin will hit $500k by 2030.

Private hiring slowed to its weakest level in 2 years, according to the ADP National Employment Report, with just 106,000 jobs added in January. In addition, the manufacturing sector continued to contract, with the ISM Manufacturing Survey for January dipping to 47.4.

During a Wednesday interview with CNBC, Ark Invest head Cathie Wood doubled down on her uber-bullish prediction about the cryptocurrency industry, claiming that her firm continues to stand by its ambitious $500,000 call.

Bitcoin traded above US$23,000 throughout Wednesday afternoon trading in Asia, while Ethereum and other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies were mixed. Cardano led gains with 2.03% followed by XRP’s 1.13%. 

Jack Mallers, the founder and CEO of Zap Solutions, a Bitcoin payments start-up that uses the Lightning Network, says that the company’s platform, Strike, now enables fast direct transfers of U.S. dollars to banks and mobile money accounts in the Philippines.

The Lightning Network is a second-layer scaling solution for the Bitcoin blockchain that aims to solve the issue of slow transaction speeds and high fees on the Bitcoin network.

Despite a severe downturn, public blockchains continue to foster multiple revolutions and one of them is bitcoin (BTC), says ARK Invest in its 2023 Big Ideas research report.