The price of
Bitcoin
soared past $57,000 Tuesday, the highest level since 2021.
The oldest and biggest cryptocurrency at last check had risen 8.1% to $56,953 after crossing $57,000 earlier. Bitcoin has jumped more than 30% since the start of the year, and if it maintains the gains, could finish the day at the highest since Nov. 30, 2021.
The rise in Bitcoin has been driven broadly by expectations for lower Federal Reserve interest rates, an upcoming technical change to how Bitcoin miners are compensated, and the start of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Meanwhile,
MicroStrategy,
a software company that buys crypto, added an additional $155 million of Bitcoin to its holdings.
Other digital coins were rising.
Ether
has gained 4.3% over the past 24 hours,
Solana
added 4.5%, and
Cardano
has risen 2.6%. Meme-based coins benefited from the rising tide too.
Dogecoin
rose 13% and
Shiba Inu
advanced 9%.
Shares of crypto companies jumped as well. MicroStrategy stock gained 8.3%,
Coinbase Global
rose 4.2%, and
Marathon Digital Holdings
rose 3.9%.
The question now is how long the rally can hold. The record price for Bitcoin is just above $65,000, which it hit in November 2021. The emergence of Bitcoin ETFs has opened up a wider pool of investor money, but it’s unclear how long the boost will last.
Central banks recently have renewed their criticisms of cryptocurrencies. The Atlanta Federal Reserve on Monday warned that crypto is risky. Officials at the European Central Bank last week wrote a blog post saying that the existence of ETFs “doesn’t change the fact that Bitcoin is not suitable as a means of payment or as an investment,” and that “the fair value of Bitcoin is still zero.”
Write to Brian Swint at [email protected]
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