Bitcoin price hits $60,000 for first time since 2021

Bitcoin, the world's most popular cryptocurrency, has once again made headlines as its price surged to $60,000 for the first time since 2021. This milestone comes amid growing interest and adoption of digital currencies by both individual investors and institutional players.

The meteoric rise in Bitcoin's price can be attributed to a variety of factors, including increased acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a legitimate asset class, inflation concerns stemming from unprecedented government stimulus measures, and growing mainstream awareness of blockchain technology. Bitcoin rose as much as 12.6 per cent to hit $63,968 on Wednesday, before falling back to about $60,000. The rally has brought its gains to 42 per cent in the first two months of this year. The rapid ascent has revived memories of the crypto bull market that pushed the token to its record peak of nearly $69,000 in November 2021, as investors pile in amid “fear of missing out” on further price rises. “This is insane,” said Timo Lehes, co-founder of blockchain company Swarm, adding that he expected more money to flow into the token.

This week's giant rally has coincided with huge inflows into U.S.-traded spot ETFs, with the new funds adding more than another 12,000 bitcoin on Tuesday after adding about 10,000 on Monday. And it comes ahead of the so-called bitcoin halving in April, an event that takes place every four years and usually accompanies strong gains as the issuance of new bitcoin slows.

Bitcoin has been on a ferocious rally for months, but that has picked up this week. Just a few days ago, its price was below $51,000. It crossed $60,000 just a few hours before exceeding $63,000.

The largest cryptocurrency is now up almost 20% over the last seven days, according to CoinGecko, bringing its market cap to $1.2 trillion. It was most recently trading at $61,121.

Spot bitcoin ETFs, which were finally approved by the SEC in January, have received huge inflows over the last few days, topping $500 million in each of the last two days. As a group, the ETFs have received $6.7 billion in inflows since Jan. 11, according to BitMEX.

Bitcoin’s big surge initially gave a lift to bitcoin-related equities, which gave back some gains after the cryptocurrency pulled back. Bitcoin proxy Microstrategy jumped 10.5% and the miner Marathon Digital rose 2.4%. Block, which operates a bitcoin trading service and holds the cryptocurrency on its balance sheet, gained nearly 1%.

Crypto exchange Coinbase gave back some of its earlier gains after its users reported zero balance errors in their accounts and issues buying and selling. It closed higher by 0.8%

 Read more

 Sarah H

Also on site :

• CDC urges summer camps to confirm measles immunity due to increasing U.S. cases
• Senate tax bill revision sets stage for House conflict
• Fast radio bursts pinpoint cosmic missing matter