Shaking off a clampdown on crypto companies by regulators over the past few weeks, Bitcoin has risen about 9% in the past 24 hours to around $24,500—its highest level since August, according to CoinMarketCap data.
The performance of the most popular cryptocurrency has also lifted the second cryptocurrency, Ether, which is up 8% and hovering near its highest point since September—around $1,700.
The rise in the price of Bitcoin can be partially due to the rise of Bitcoin NFTs, called Ordinals, leading to other activities on the blockchain by users not only looking for financial transactions, according to a report from the blockchain data company Glassnode. The number of non-zero balance addresses on the Bitcoin blockchain also reached an all-time high of 44 million.
“This is a new and unique moment in the history of Bitcoin, where innovation generates network activity without the classical transfer of coin volumes for monetary purposes,” Glassnode wrote in its report.
If we cut out $25k, $30k is close!#Bitcoin $BTC pic.twitter.com/FNX1W5eGFL
– Crypto Rover (@rovercrc) February 16, 2023
The recovery in the crypto market comes after a retreat in February following bad news for the industry.
Recent actions by regulators against crypto exchanges Kraken and Paxos have sent shock waves throughout the ecosystem, and there are some questions about the future of crypto companies in the US
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the January consumer price index report saw inflation rise 0.5% for an annual increase of 6.4% to start 2023. Although the figure beat analysts’ expectations, prices have fallen over the past six months, driven in part by rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.
Still, while leading economists have warned that 2023 could be a turbulent year for the market, some on Crypto Twitter are optimistically predicting a full rally after Bitcoin’s latest pump.
#Bitcoin is Food in the Fire of Truth. pic.twitter.com/N5NPOHFfkj
– Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) February 16, 2023
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