Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has gained for a sixth straight day, extending its longest winning streak of the year and approaching the record high price reached last month.
Changing hands above $56,000, up about 3% on the day, and within range of a quick run to the all-time high of $58,332.
“We continue to see strong upward momentum from technicals,” Gary Pike, director of sales and trading at institutional cryptocurrency trading platform B2C2 USA, said.
“One should not be surprised for bitcoin to test the old highs and potentially breakthrough.”
The gain comes even as a key measure of U.S. consumer prices rose less than expected in February, suggesting broader inflationary pressures remain tame. Bitcoin proponents have championed the digital asset as a hedge against a future surge in inflation. While the $1 trillion mark is noteworthy, the argument has been made that assigning a market capitalization isn’t an accurate representation since Bitcoin isn’t a company or even an asset.
Sceptics say without real-world assets that companies possess or government backing like the dollar, all investors are really buying into is faith in the cryptocurrency’s network.
Ether loses Momentum as Bitcoin Gains.
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down on Wednesday, trading around $1,803.34 and sliding 1.56% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Ether’s futures open interest is near $6 billion on Wednesday, a 30% jump from last Friday, according to Jason Lau, chief operating officer at San Francisco-based crypto exchange OkCoin. The number is approaching its all-time high at about $7 billion, reached on Feb. 19.
At the same time, the amount of ether staked on Ethereum 2.0 has crossed the 3% threshold of total circulating coin supply, as CoinDesk reported earlier today, meaning 3% of all ether in existence will not be available for use other than staking on Eth 2.0 until sometime in the future.
Read also; Bitcoin Bounces Above $50,000 for the first time in six days
