Bitcoin’s price has quietly doubled this year. Why?

globalnews.ca:

After seeing its value crater for much of 2022, bitcoin has quietly seen its price double over the past year.

The price of the popular cryptocurrency hit an 18-month high of US$37,344 this past week, with its value up more than 100 per cent year-to-date. Despite the surge, BTC hasn’t returned to its all-time highs of US$67,617 seen in November 2021.

Analysts who spoke to Global News say the cryptocurrency space is settling after a year of both scandal and tough market pressures, and hopes for more mainstream adoption for bitcoin and its peers in the months to come are fuelling a run-up for the asset.

Greg Taylor, chief investment officer at Purpose Investments, says there was a “pretty big washout” for crypto in 2022 with many investors cashing out of the asset after its run-up in value towards the end of 2021.

Central banks around the world were also ramping up their interest rate tightening cycles in 2022.

Alex Tapscott, managing director of the digital asset group at Ninepoint Capital, says this prompted a flood of exits from the stock market into relative safe havens such as the U.S. dollar. As equity markets took a hit amid the swirling uncertainty of rising interest rates, cryptocurrencies were not immune to the pressure, he says.

“Bitcoin and the asset class as a whole really didn’t stand a chance,” he says.

Crypto also faced existential challenges with the folding of numerous exchanges and cryptocurrency tokens, as well as the high-profile collapse of FTX. That exchange, once valued at a peak of US$32 billion and hailed as a leader in the industry, was at the centre of a trial that most recently saw founder Sam Bankman-Fried convicted of defrauding investors.

In the wake of the FTX collapse, Tapscott says