Karla Barker 
The altcoin market turned green on Wednesday, with most tokens showing signs of being oversold. Meme coins led the rally, driven by strong inflows. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu both posted double-digit gains, catching many traders off guard.
Dogecoin jumped as much as 15%, hitting an intraday high of $0.112. This was a sharp move from $0.099, breaking the $0.1 barrier that had held since February. For most of 2024, the price had stayed below that level, so the breakout is notable. Traders poured capital into DOGE futures, pushing open interest up by over 28% in a single day to $1.81 billion, the highest since October 10. The upward move caught shorts unaware, creating a squeeze that lifted the price further.
According to CoinGlass data, short positions worth $21.33 million were liquidated in the last 24 hours, while long positions saw only $451,420 in liquidations. That imbalance suggests a lot of bearish bets were wrong-footed.
Shiba Inu Follows Similar Pattern
$SHIB also saw a major surge, posting its largest gain in recent weeks. The token climbed from $0.00000612 to $0.00000656, gaining more than 6%. The move coincided with a golden cross on Shiba Inu’s short-term charts. On the 30-minute chart, the 50-period moving average rose above the 200-period moving average, a bullish signal for traders.
At the time of writing, $SHIB was up 5.77% in the last 24 hours, trading at $0.00000644. Binance-listed $SHIB futures are showing a bullish setup, similar to Dogecoin. Shiba Inu open interest increased nearly 14% in the last 24 hours, a trend seen across most meme coins.
Fed Decision Adds Uncertainty
The Federal Reserve will announce its rate decision later on Wednesday, and volatility is expected to follow. The two-day monetary policy meeting wraps up today, with outgoing Fed chair Jerome Powell and the Federal Open Market Committee widely expected to keep interest rates on hold at the current 3.50% to 3.75% level. That decision could affect broader market sentiment, including crypto, depending on the wording of the statement and Powell’s tone during the press conference.
For now, meme coins are riding a wave of short-term momentum, but traders are cautious given the macro event ahead.