On Monday, the Bitcoin price soared above $40,000 for the first time in 18 months. This happens as investors look forward to regulatory approval and a lower interest rate, which would propel the crypto asset mainstream.
According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin was up more than 5%, trading at $41,600 for the past 24 hours. The co-founder of crypto lender Nexo made the following statement regarding this. “Bitcoin breaking $40,000 isn’t as juicy as the first time it happened in January 2021. Yet consider where we were a year ago at $15,500, and this is a significant upturn in fortunes for an asset that looked dead and buried”.
On Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated that the central bank’s policy “was well into restrictive territory “. Making investors pile on as some interpreted the word to mean that the hike in interest rates was over. However, Powell stressed that the Federal Reserve would raise the rates if deemed necessary.
This news serves as encouragement to investors who are eager to move on from the recent crypto scandals. In a proximity of 2 months, the FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted by a jury of masterminding a multibillion-dollar fraud. Weeks later, the founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, Changpeng Zhao, resigned as the CEO, after pleading guilty to federal money-laundering charges.
Notwithstanding, Bitcoin is now up 150% for the year. But yet to reach the all-time high of $69,000 as of November 2021.