The price of Bitcoin has jumped by more than 20% in the first two weeks of the year 2023.
The increasing price of Bitcoin (BTC) continues, with the cryptocurrency now reaching above $20,000 for the first time since the FTX collapse that happened in November last year.
The largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization began the week near the $17,000 mark after staying in the $16,000 range in mid-December. Bitcoin has now grown to over 20% in the opening two weeks of this year, at $20,250. This is still a far cry from the crypto’s once brilliant all-time high, which exceeded over $69,000 in November 2021.
Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at foreign exchange company Oanda, said: “Indeed, $20,000 once was deemed a disturbing low but now potentially represents a sign of a revival.”
The broader crypto market is also moving nicely higher, as the total market capitalization of the industry currently stands at $979 billion, an increase of 3.8% in the past 24 hours. More than $72 billion worth of cryptocurrency has been traded in the last day, according to CoinGecko.
Crypto-related stocks also benefited from the rally this week. Leading US-based crypto exchange Coinbase Global (COIN) went up by 39% while crypto miner Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) surged 76%.
The value of BTC started to climb earlier in the second week, in anticipation of the release of the Federal Reserve’s December Consumer Price Index report. Bitcoin traded at over $21,000 on Monday (January 16) and is expected to continue climbing. The CPI report showed that inflation in the U.S. economy is certainly slowing down.