The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization briefly shot past $30,000 Tuesday evening, a sudden moment of volatility for Bitcoin in a month of comparative steadiness.
The token reached a high of $30,177 at about 5 p.m. ET before quickly falling to just above $29,800. The cryptocurrency is now trading at a similar mark after briefly jumping to $30,043. In the past week, Bitcoin is up nearly 2%.
The almost $1.2 trillion market for cryptocurrencies—of which Bitcoin constitutes almost half—is also up, about 1%, in the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap. Crypto prices are not in line with the broader stock market, as the S&P 500 is down nearly 2% and the Nasdaq almost 3% in the same time frame.
“The rise in Bitcoin price so far is only about 3% off of recent lows,” Chris Bendiksen, Bitcoin research lead at CoinShares, told Coins2Day in a statement. “That’s well within its historic daily volatility profile, so it shouldn’t really warrant much excitement.”
Following lows of almost $16,000 to start the year, the price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap has almost doubled after a disastrous 2022.
In the beginning of June, when Bitcoin was trading near $27,000, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued both Binance and Coinbase, two of the largest exchanges, and the broader crypto market tumbled, with Bitcoin nearly touching $25,000.
However, just days later, BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, filed an application for a Bitcoin spot ETF, or a way for more traditional investors to gain exposure to the daily price swings of the cryptocurrency. Soon after, a flood of other firms filed applications for their own Bitcoin spot ETFs, and the price of the cryptocurrency soared to a year high of over $31,000.
Bitcoin hasn’t pushed past that high-water mark since, but it has plateaued in a surprising bout of stability for a usually volatile asset.
“In order to rekindle proper excitement in the markets,” CoinShares’ Bendiksen added, “I believe we need to see a convincing breakout above $32,000, followed by a prolonged period of price holding above those levels.”
