LONDON: Bitcoin hit a nine-month high, taking gains past 30% in four days as it shrugged off chaos in global markets after last week’s collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and rode expectations that U.S. interest rates won’t rise so fast.
Bitcoin jumped as much as 9.6% to $26,533, its highest since June 2022, in its fourth straight days of gains.
Major cryptocurrencies have been buoyed in recent days by U.S. authorities announcing plans to limit the fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
U.S. authorities’ action helped stabilise the major USDC stablecoin, whose issuer Circle had deposits of $3.3 billion at SVB. The steadying of USDC, the second-biggest stablecoin and a key cog in digital token trading, was seen as positive for the crypto sector as a whole.
Read more: Major crypto coins stabilise after U.S. intervenes on SVB collapse
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, has taken in its stride the collapses of SVB and Signature Bank over the weekend, and Silvergate Bank earlier this month, all key banking partners for a number of crypto firms.
Helping the asset on Tuesday, analysts said, was U.S. consumer price data that showed inflation still rising, but at a slower pace than the previous month. The widely anticipated reading may lead the Federal Reserve to slow or even pause hiking interest rates next week.
“CPI data being in line with expectations has been very supportive for interest rate sensitive crypto assets such as bitcoin,” said James Butterfill, head of research at digital asset manager CoinShares.
