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Bitcoin has had a strong start to the year, with the cryptocurrency seeing a massive rally.
Jakub Porzycki | Nurfoto | Getty Images
Bitcoin rose to a new 2023 high on Thursday, as optimism around a potential bitcoin ETF approval continued to rise.
The price of the flagship cryptocurrency rose more than 6% to $37,000 for the first time since May 2022. It last traded at $37,913.34. Ether was little changed but had recent gains and traded just below the key USD 2,000 level.
The rise in bitcoin prices caused a wave of short liquidations overnight, pushing crypto prices higher, said Clara Medalie, head of research at crypto data provider Kaiko.
“Over the past year, crypto markets have been desperately searching for a catalyst amid a sea of bad news, and the ETF news has been a welcome change,” she said. “Should [an ETF approval] When we come, we may see another big wave, or we may witness its magnitude now. Ultimately, it’s too early to say whether the rally has legs, but things look promising.”
Other crypto assets and crypto stocks benefited from the bitcoin price surge on Thursday. Solana, one of the biggest outperformers in crypto this year, gained 11%. The tokens are linked to Cardano And Polygon increased by 4% and 3% respectively.
“And, as we’ve seen, ether and other altcoins will follow suit not long after as bitcoin rises,” said Darius Tabatabai, co-founder of decentralized exchange Vertex Protocol. “With Bitcoin already up over 120% this year, we see many other coins turning bullish and trading volumes picking up again.”
Shares of crypto service provider Coin base rose 10%, while bitcoin proxy Microstrategy 11% won.
Meanwhile, shares of bitcoin miners enjoyed bigger boosts. Marathon digital And Revoltthe largest of the mining stocks, rose 20% and 15% respectively. Clean spark advanced 11%.
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Correction: Bitcoin’s price reached $37,000 for the first time since May 2022. An earlier version of this story misstated the time interval.
