Bitcoin surges past $42,000 since April 2022
“Bitcoin mining is a very energy-intensive business, which is why we tend to find places like West Texas to be full of Bitcoin miners,” said Matt Prusak, Chief Commercial Officer at cryptocurrency miner US Bitcoin Corp. PHOTO: REUTERS
Bitcoin rose on Monday, briefly surpassing $42,000 to reach a 20-month high, in a new surge of momentum fuelled by the possibility of US interest rate cuts and traders betting that the US will soon approve exchange-traded spot bitcoin funds.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency hit as high as $42,162 on Monday, its highest since April 2022, seemingly casting off the funk that had settled over crypto markets following the collapse of FTX and other crypto-business failures last year. It was up 6.49% at $41,311.26 as of 1605 GMT.
Bitcoin’s gains lifted the shares of cryptocurrency-related companies, as well as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed in the United States.
Coinbase jumped 6.5% and Microstrategy gained nearly 6%, while bitcoin miners such as Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital and CleanSpark rose between 8% and 11%. Last week, Microstrategy disclosed it bought an additional $593 million in bitcoin during November.
The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which tracks bitcoin futures, rose 7.3%, while the ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF that allows traders to bet on a fall in bitcoin futures dropped 7.3%.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2023.
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