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Bitcoin is once again pushing towards an all-time high following a major price rally in recent days.
The cryptocurrency was trading above $70,000 (£55,000) on Wednesday, up 10 per cent over the last week and just $3,000 away from the record high it hit in March.
The latest price surge and continued momentum has led some market analysts to speculate that a new all-time high could be reached within the next few days.
Crypto expert Simon Peters said the positive week came as a result of lighter than expected inflation data in the US.
“Bitcoin in particular has become increasingly correlated with US equity markets in recent weeks,” Mr Peters, who works as an analyst at the online trading platform eToro, wrote in an email sent to The Independent.
“As we go into the second half of the year, the macroeconomic climate, particularly inflation data and potential cuts to interest rates, will play a critical role in the direction of bitcoin prices for the remainder of the year.”
Geoff Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered Bank, told The Block that he expected a “fresh all-time high in bitcoin by the weekend”.
Other leading cryptocurrencies have also seen significant gains in recent days, with Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX) surging by 15-25 per cent over the last seven days.
Dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano (ADA) saw more modest gains, both rising by around 7 per cent over the same period.
The positive price movements pushed the overall crypto market cap above $2.5 trillion.
Alex Kuptsikevich, a senior analyst at FxPro, said certain market signals indicated “a return to the bull trend” that dominated the first few months of the year.
Between January and March 2024, bitcoin rose from just above $40,000 to its record of $73,798, according to data from price tracker CoinMarketCap, largely boosted by the first ever exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US in January.
This followed an even more remarkable rise in 2023 that saw bitcoin nearly triple in price in just 12 months.
