Bitcoin Rises Above $31,000 to Highest Level in a Year

Bitcoin broke above the $31,000 level on Friday, continuing its mid-June surge and building on its recent gains fueled by the biggest Wall Street institutions’ filing applications for the first spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency soared to $31,230 Friday afternoon in New York, up about 2% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk. Bitcoin briefly hit a peak of $31,412.72, its highest level since June 8, 2022. The last time Bitcoin briefly hit the $31,000 mark was on April 10.

The rally comes as Bitcoin has seen renewed interest after asset management giant BlackRock filed an application with the SEC for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund last Thursday. BlackRock’s filing said that its iShares Bitcoin Trust would issue no new shares without them being backed 1:1 with BTC. Investors have been upbeat since BlackRock opened the floodgates for other institutions including WisdomTree, Invesco, and Valkyrie to either file for the same product or update existing filings.

“The long-term conviction of these financial behemoths — which include some of the most trusted names in asset management and retail investing — boosted sentiment and investor confidence when both were relatively low,” Ryan Rasmussen, an analyst at Bitwise Asset Management said. “It’s a sign that the days are numbered for bad actors like Binance and FTX and that the crypto ecosystem is maturing. That’s a powerful catalyst for the industry, which has been plagued at various times by fraudsters and detractors.”

This jump comes after a prolonged period of stagnant trading after Bitcoin reached the $30,000 level in April but has wavered between $25,000 and $30,000. Bitcoin along with the rest of the cryptocurrency market has struggled this month in the aftermath of the SEC’s unprecedented lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase.

Bitcoin is now roughly up 20% over the past week and is up almost 90% this year.

Ethereum similarly extended gains along Bitcoin, spiking 3% and approaching the $2,000 level mark. Earlier this week, Ethereum regained the $1,900 threshold for the first time since early June