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Bitcoin prices surged on Tuesday.
Dreamstime
Bitcoin
and other cryptocurrencies surged Tuesday as the apparent correlation of digital assets and technology stocks continued after the tech-heavy
Nasdaq Composite
index rallied 1.3% on Monday.
Bitcoin bounced more than 5% higher over the past 24 hours to near $ 40,500. The price of the largest crypto bottomed out below $ 38,500 on Monday but was trading as high as $ 43,000 late last week.
“Commentators note that bitcoin has been trading more like a tech stock than a cryptocurrency recently, with strong correlation to the Nasdaq,” noted Emile Phaneuf, an economist at crypto research firm Brave New Coin.
The Nasdaq led US stock indexes higher on Monday, with a late-day rally in tech stocks helping the entire market stage a turnaround in the last session.
More broadly, “a combination of simultaneous upward and downward pressures on bitcoin’s price includes US dollar holders looking for alternative assets during the highest inflation in decades; some buying after the American mid-April tax deadline passing; the war in Ukraine and the US’s OFAC sanctioning of Russian bitcoin miners and the ongoing uncertainty about whether the [Securities and Exchange Commission] might approve spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US, ”Phaneuf added.
Bitcoin’s smaller peer,
ether,
also jumped, rising near 7% to around $ 3,000. The token underpinning the Ethereum blockchain network fell as low as $ 2,800 on Monday but topped $ 3,150 as recently as last Thursday.
“Altcoins,” or smaller cryptocurrencies, also were gaining.
Solana
and avalanche rose 6% and
cardano
was 7% higher.
Luna
rose 8%.
Gains reached a whole other level for “memecoins” – called that because they were initially intended as internet jokes rather than significant blockchain projects. While
shiba inu
increased 8%,
dogecoin
soared more than 30%.
Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency most associated with
Tesla
(ticker: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, was flying after the billionaire reached a deal to buy social media platform
Twitter
(TWTR) in a deal for $ 54.20 a share.
Dogecoin, the 10th-largest crypto by market capitalization, has long been a favorite of the outspoken Tesla CEO. Musk said last month that he would not sell his dogecoin, and would also continue to hold bitcoin and ether.
Earlier this year, Tesla began accepting dogecoin for merchandise purchases on its website. Dogecoin holders could be hoping that Twitter under Musk’s leadership may see more of the same – a use case for the token. Late last year Twitter unveiled a tipping function allowing users to send creators bitcoin.
“Speculators have been buying dogecoin due to Elon’s obsession with the cryptocurrency, and hence the potential for dogecoin to be given more utility on one of the biggest social media networks once Elon has official control of the company,” said Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at digital asset broker GlobalBlock.
Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]
.