Bitcoin topped $45,000 for first time in nearly two years

Bitcoin topped $45,000 for first time in nearly two years

Bitcoin surpassed $45,000 for the first time in nearly two years as anticipation of an approval of an exchange-traded fund investing directly in the biggest token intensified. The cryptocurrency jumped as much as 5.2% to its highest level since April 2022 and traded at $45,063 as of 3 p.m. New York time. Other tokens were mixed with Ether, the second biggest, rising as much as 4.1%, and recent high-flyer Solana down 2.2%.

Bitcoin has jumped almost 20% since the start of December as a Jan. 10 deadline for the US Securities and Exchange Commission to give its blessing for a spot ETF Bitcoin draws closer.“The markets are continuing to rally on strong belief that a Bitcoin ETF will soon be allowed to come to market in the US,” said Darius Tabatabai, co-founder of decentralized exchange Vertex Protocol. “Typically, such an event is a buy-the-rumor, sell-the-news type of thing, and this appears to be no exception.”

The halving – sometimes referred to as halvening – is planned for April and happens once every four years or so. The coin hit records after each of the last three halvings. Bitcoin’s near 160% rebound last year partially repaired some of the damage caused by a precipitous 2022 crash that reverberated around the crypto industry. The token outperformed global stocks and gold over the period but remains below its 2021 pandemic-era record of almost $69,000. Shares of so-called crypto companies were also mixed. Bitcoin proxy MicroStrategy rose about 87%, while miner Marathon Digital declined 2.3% and crypto exchange Coinbase Global fell 9.5%.

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