Bitcoin Touches $31,000 As BlackRock Rally Continues
Bitcoin has soared above $31,000 thanks to a wave of optimism from institutional investors who began eyeing the asset following a high-profile ETF application and the launch of a new crypto exchange.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was trading at $31,195 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko. That’s an increase of more than 4% in 24 hours and more than 21% in the last seven days.
Bitcoin last broke past $31,000 in May 2022. At the start of this year, the asset was trading for less than $17,000 per coin.
The pump comes after the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock last week applied to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a spot Bitcoin ETF ̵[ads1]1; which the regulator has not yet approved.
And earlier this week, EDX Markets – a new digital asset exchange backed by major Wall Street players Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities – launched.
The rally brings the rest of the crypto market up: Ethereum, the second-largest digital asset, was up 1.6% in 24 hours, trading at $1,916.
And Bitcoin spin-off Bitcoin Cash is the best-performing digital asset over the past day – up 32% in 24 hours, trading at $177; the cryptocurrency has risen over 60% in the past week.
Another winner is Pepe, a new “meme coin” that has shot up 80% in seven days and is currently priced at $0.00000172.
The entire cryptocurrency market cap is now worth $1.24 trillion, a change of 3.1% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
Institutional investors quickly pulled money out of the products as regulatory headwinds kept big money away from the asset class – but sentiment now appears to be changing.
