Bitcoin galloped above the $7,000 level as its longest winning streak since 2013 rekindled global cryptocurrency markets.
The surge came only a few days after the asset broke through $6,000 and is drawing investor focus to conferences in New York on the technology underlying the biggest crypto asset.
"Bitcoin is acting differently since moving above its 200-day moving average,” with the gains occurring on strong volume, a good sign, Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee, a noted Bitcoin bull, wrote in an email. Blockchain Week is underway, co-sponsored by the New York City Economic Development Corp., and the Consensus forum is set to start, where people are "expecting a higher-quality conference,” Lee said.
With fundamental analysts always struggling to explain crypto markets, traders recently have pointed to institutions boosting their embrace of digital coins, with the likes of Fidelity Investments planning to buy and sell Bitcoin for institutional customers soon, and E*Trade dipping into the trading space.
Earlier this month, the Bank of Canada and Monetary Authority of Singapore announced that they had sent each other digital currencies using blockchain technology.
The most well-known digital token rose as much as 14% on Monday to as high as $7,174.63, then pared the gain to 12% according to composite prices compiled by Bloomberg at 9:47 a.m. London time. Rival coins surged in a broad rally, with Bitcoin Cash up as much as 23%, and Litecoin and Ether both at least 9% higher.
Read more: Bitcoin a Buy Says Strategist Who Called Late-2018 Breakdown
While Bitcoin has more than doubled from its post-crash low, the crypto space is by no means free of headaches.
Binance, a large crypto exchange, recently reported a hack of 7,000 Bitcoins with about $40 million. The companies behind the digital exchange Bitfinex and the cryptocurrency Tether recently said that the so-called stablecoin is backed by cash and short-term securities only equal to 74 percent of the outstanding coins rather than completely pegged to the U.S. dollar.
And that’s aside from the volatility -- Bitcoin peaked above $19,000 in December 2017 before crashing back to earth in the succeeding months.
