Bitcoin surges past US$42,000 as crypto rally gathers steam
financialpost.comBitcoin topped US$42,000 as frenzied speculation in cryptocurrencies gathers pace, extending the largest digital token’s rally to more than 150 per cent this year.
The biggest cryptocurrency rose as much as 6.1 per cent to reach US$42,144 as of 11 a.m. on Monday in London. Bitcoin was last at these levels in April 2022, before the TerraUSD stablecoin collapse that accelerated a US$2 trillion rout in digital assets. It’s on track for the biggest annual gain since 2020.
Smaller tokens such as Ether and meme-crowd favourite Dogecoin also pushed higher. Bitcoin Cash jumped 11 per cent and a gauge of the largest 100 crypto coins added more than five per cent. The broad cryptocurrency advance came even as stock markets were mixed, with benchmarks in China and Hong Kong sliding.
Investors are increasingly convinced that the United States Federal Reserve is done with rate hikes as inflation cools, turning the focus to the likely extent of reductions in benchmark borrowing costs next year. The changed backdrop has fuelled a rally across global markets and has reignited speculative interest in digital assets.
“Bitcoin continues to be supported by optimism around SEC approval for an ETF and Fed rate cuts in 2024,” Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG Australia Pty, wrote in a note. Technical chart patterns point to US$42,330 as the next level to watch for, he added.
The crypto industry is also awaiting the outcome of applications from the likes of BlackRock Inc. to start the first U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs. Bloomberg Intelligence expects a batch of these products to win Securities & Exchange Commission approval by January.
Bitcoin’s revival from the 2022 crypto crash has weathered a U.S. crackdown that put Sam Bankman-Fried behind
Read more on financialpost.com
