Bitcoin (BTC) Price Bounces Back Above $100K as AI Agents Lead Altcoin Market Recovery

On Wednesday, Bitcoin [BTC] bounced off and retested $100k following cooler-than-expected U.S inflation data, lifting the entire market.

Bitcoin [BTC] price action recovered strongly on 12 January following U.S inflation data that came in lower-than-expected. This bullish momentum lifted the entire market, XRP included.

Here’s what happened in the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin price action recovered on Wednesday after the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an inflation rate of 3.2% year-on-year (YoY) in December. This figure was lower than the 3.3% projection by economists.

The reading showed a slowdown in the rate of price increases, easing fears of aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. Earlier, fears of a rate hike and Fed pivot outlook had dragged BTC below the $90k level.

However, данным Coinmarketcap, markets are still pricing in a 97% chance of an ‘unchanged’ Fed interest rate at the next meeting towards the end of January.

AI agents lead recovery, XRP hits new high

Bitcoin’s price rally saw close followers Solana [SOL] and Ethereum [ETH] post 14% and 12% gains, respectively. However, the AI agent sector saw a larger rally.

Leading the pack were Virtuals Protocol [VIRTUAL] and Aixbt [AIXBT] with gains of 25% and 35%, respectively. Other tokens with the AI agent narrative, like Fartcoin and Cookie, also logged double-digit gains. In fact, some agent tokens posted triple-digit gains in a day too.

However, the key market highlight was XRP. At press time, the altcoin hit a high of $3.38, crossing its 2021 cycle high in the process. The feat effectively extended its breakout gains to +40%, with the altcoin unfazed by legal developments as the SEC filed an appeal against Ripple Labs.

The agency is dissatisfied with U.S District Judge Analisa Torres’s ruling that classified XRP as non-security and reduced Ripple Labs’ $2B fine to $125M.

Despite speculation that the agency would not appeal the case, it did so, irking Ripple’s leadership, who termed the move a waste of taxpayer money. However, there are reports that the new Trump administration could ‘freeze’ some crypto lawsuits, including Ripple’s case.

Finally, the RWA (real-asset tokenization) market leader, Ondo [ONDO], will unlock nearly 800M tokens (worth $2.4B) on 18 January.

This will translate to 134% of its market cap and could expose the token to significant volatility and selling pressure. Despite a broader market recovery at press time, the altcoin is already down by 42%. Priced at $1.2, it hasn’t recovered from December’s sell-off so far.