Bitcoin extends gains to reach 2022 high of more than US$48,000
BNN Bloomberg
Bitcoin’s under-the-radar rally over the last few days has bulls once again eyeing levels the coin hasn’t seen since the start of the year.
Bitcoin’s under-the-radar rally over the last few days has bulls once again eyeing levels the coin hasn’t seen since last year.
The largest cryptocurrency by market value rose as much as 4.6 per cent at one point Monday, reaching US$48,215 before fluctuating around that level. The peak was its highest level of the year and the propulsion rounds out its year-to-date gains to around 4 per cent. Elsewhere, the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 100 index -- which tracks tracks the performance of some of the largest digital assets -- was up more as much as 6.7 per cent.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies had been, up until the last few weeks, mired in a similar downtrend as other riskier assets, like U.S. stocks. But a weekend break above US$45,000, a key level watched by chartists, helped garner momentum for a bigger breakout. The coin has added 17 per cent over the past week.
“It’s been a choppy start to the year, not just for crypto, but across all asset classes. So I think certainly, it’s an exciting morning in the crypto community to see that year-long, so far, of losses erased, and also seeing Bitcoin break out above that psychological US$45,000 level,” Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale, said in a Bloomberg TV interview. He added that “what we’re seeing is a couple of native crypto buyers like Terra buying for their own reserves,” which could help support prices.
Do Kwon, the co-founder and chief executive officer of the firm behind the Terra blockchain, confirmed that it has purchased more than US$1 billion in Bitcoin since the end of January, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. Analysts are also pointing to other developments for the renewed optimism around crypto, with some citing comments by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said in a March 25 interview with CNBC that despite her own skepticism about the asset class, “there are benefits from crypto and we recognize that innovation in the payment system can be a healthy thing.”
