A rally in the cryptocurrency on Tuesday pushed bitcoin out of a one-month trading range and ignited a massive surge in smaller tokens commonly referred to as altcoins.
The largest virtual coin climbed 9.1% to $23,439, a level that occurred in mid-June or just after the collapse of crypto lender Celsius Network. Ether added about 11% at one point. Solana also achieved a double-digit percentage before backing out.
Bitcoin has struggled to escape the $19,000 to $22,000 range as investors lick their wounds by tightening monetary policy and intensified by the Celsius and TeraUSD stablecoin collapses in May. It has bounced back from the all-time high around $69,000 in November.
“I think the worst happened,” said Mike Novogratz, chief executive of Galaxy Digital, at the Bloomberg Crypto Summit.
A sustained break above could renew the speculative momentum that could hold the crypto asset up in the blink of an eye. Federal Reserve interest rate hikes are now less aggressive, which may help.
US stocks extended gains as investors gauged the earnings outlook amid speculation the disappointment may already be costing the markets. Bitcoin has been closely related to volatility in equities.
Ether is extending a rally after developers of the Ethereum blockchain set targets for a long-awaited software update that is projected to reduce the network’s energy use.
Altcoins often outperform bitcoin during rallies and underperform when prices fall, partly because they are favored by more speculative traders and are less liquid.
“Bitcoin has retested the $22,000 level as some short-sellers need to leave it,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp, wrote in a note. Crypto is starting to look attractive now as the Fed’s expectations of toughness have waned, he added.
Bitcoin’s recent rally has cut its losses this year by almost 50%. The total market cap of the digital token is back at the $1 trillion level.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed.
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