Bitcoin continues to climb higher as Ark Invest sees crypto safe haven

Bitcoin continued to trade higher at the top of the week, with Ark Invest saying last week’s rally is a sign of its value as a safe haven asset.

Bitcoin was trading around $28,400 by 9:25 a.m. EDT, up 3.6% in the past day, according to TradingView. Ether was flat over the past day, trading just below $1,800.

BTCUSD chart by TradingView

Altcoin prices slipped over the past day. Ripple’s XRP and Polygon’s MATIC traded lower, falling 2.6% and 3.2%, respectively. Solana’s SOL bucked the trend, jumping over 8% in the past day.

Dog-themed memecoins traded down, with Dogecoin and shiba inu falling 0.5% and 1%, respectively.  

Safe haven

“In the face of the U.S. and European banking crises, bitcoin’s price appreciation suggests that lax regulatory oversight had no impact on the decentralized, transparent, and auditable crypto asset ecosystem,” Ark Invest’s Yassine Elmandjra wrote in the firm’s weekly newsletter. 

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are behaving like “safe havens,” he said.

“Last weekend, when many banks were closed, and others were facing bank runs, bitcoin didn’t skip a beat: it settled ~$33 billion, facilitated ~600k transactions, issued 2,037 new BTC at a steady and predictable ~1.8% inflation rate, attracted ~1 million new addresses, and generated $43 million for miners securing the network,” Elmandjra said.

“While the U.S. banking system was seizing up in response to bank runs threatening regional banks, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other crypto networks didn’t skip a beat,” Ark Invest Founder and CEO Cathie Wood tweeted.

Regulators should have been focused on the centralized and opaque points of failure looming in the traditional banking system, she said.

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