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Bitcoin rose the most in more than a month, gaining along with global equities and pushing past the psychologically important US$20 000 level as a bout of dollar weakness drove demand for risk assets.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency advanced 6,8 percent to US$20 685 at 10:26 a.m. in London, the highest since August 27 and outperforming most of the other top tokens like Ether. Asian and European stocks were also in the green as risk appetite returned, with the Hang Seng Index up about 2,7 percent.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index tumbled 0,9 percent on Friday after surging to the highest on record this week. Every Group-of-10 currency strengthened against the greenback, with the risk-sensitive Australian dollar and Norwegian krone leading gains.
Bitcoin has been stuck in the tightest trading range in almost two years in September, in part reflecting uncertainty about how far central banks will go in raising interest rates in the face of a slowing global economy. Amid the lack of direction, some analysts have pointed to activity in futures markets as suggesting Bitcoin may be poised to break out.
Riyad Carey, an analyst at crypto researcher Kaiko, highlighted a jump in open interest in Bitcoin futures on some of the biggest exchanges.
“It appears that there was a bit of pent up demand for BTC (and BTC volatility), which has traded in a relatively tight range for the past couple months with decreasing volatility,” Carey said in a direct message over Twitter.
Friday’s move was unusual in that Bitcoin outperformed almost all other top tokens tracked by Bloomberg. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 100 Index advanced 5,2 percent. Smaller so-called altcoins typically fluctuate by larger magnitudes than Bitcoin, the industry’s bellwether. – Bloomberg
Bloomberg
Online Reporter