Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) extended its upward trend in Friday late morning trading as the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge slowed and thus fueled speculation that peak interest rates are on the horizon. The token drifted up 0.2% to $28.36K and ethereum ( ETH-USD ) advanced 2.1% to $1.82K at 11:43 a.m. ET. Data from CoinMarketCap showed the value of the overall crypto market gained 0.8% to $1.19T. After taking a breather in the previous session, the world's largest token ( BTC-USD ) is now eyeing $29K, a level that was briefly exceeded on Wednesday, before retreating to as low as $27.74K. BTC's modest intraday upswing was buoyed by a stronger stock market in the wake of slowing inflation and a downtick in consumer sentiment . Overall, the token has had a robust month, on track to end the month 21.5% higher , as bullish sentiment surrounded the long-running lawsuit between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Ripple, the company behind XRP ( XRP-USD ). "Ripple may have sold unregistered securities, but the court may find XRP ( XRP-USD ) is not now a security and Ripple did not have fair notice of the law," said SA contributor John Miller . In the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance, the regulator branded bitcoin ( BTC-USD ), ethereum ( ETH-USD ) and other tokens as commodities, which would be bullish for the industry. Crypto-exposed stocks were trading mostly higher. The biggest winners featured Marathon Digital ( MARA ), +8.1% , Coinbase Global ( COIN ), +5.8% , Bit Digital ( BTBT ), +7.6% , Bakkt Holdings ( BKKT ), +5.8% , and MicroStrategy ( MSTR ), +4.5% . SA author Investor Trip explained why it was a smart move for investors to buy the recent dip in MSTR .
