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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) jumped to a one-year high, touching as high as $31.4K, in Friday trading, bucking the risk-off sentiment in the major U.S. stock averages.
Year to date, bitcoin (BTC-USD), the world’s biggest crypto by market cap, has climbed 86%, but, it’s still less than half its all-time high of almost $69K reached in November 2021. The digital token accelerated 3.2% to $31.1K at the time of writing.
The enthusiasm for bitcoin (BTC-USD) specifically, and crypto, in general, gained momentum when BlackRock (BLK) filed for a bitcoin ETF last week.
“The significance of Blackrock’s involvement and the impact it has had on Bitcoin’s price trajectory is likely significant, and the listing has brought renewed confidence and heightened interest in Bitcoin, propelling its market dominance and solidifying its position as a leading digital asset,” Mikkel Morch, chairman and non-executive director at crypto hedge fund ARK36 said in a recent statement.
Earlier this week, the launch of EDX Markets, backed by some Wall Street giants, brought more oomph.
Sumit Handa, managing director at Pennington Partners, a family office, also noted that the Federal Reserve’s move last week to keep its policy rate unchanged also helped. “With a pause in rate increases, yield will come down, more money will enter the system and risk assets will go up — especially crypto and emerging markets.”
Other cryptocurrencies are also gaining. Ethereum (ETH-USD) rose 1.2% to $1.91K, litecoin (LTC-USD) +3.7%, polkadot (DOT-USD) +4.4%, cardano (ADA-USD) +2.5%.
All in, the global crypto market value climbed 2.8% to $1.2T, but still trails the November 2021 peak of about $3T, according to CoinMarketCap data, in the wake of a widespread regulatory clampdown on the space triggered by high-profile bankruptcies.
Crypto-exposed stocks rising the most include: Bit Digital (BTBT) +8.7%, Marathon Digital (MARA) +7.3%, Bitfarms (BITF) +4.5%, Hut 8 (HUT) +4.3%, Coinbase (COIN) +5.0%, Riot Platforms (RIOT) +4.5%.
With reporting by Max Gottlich
