Bitcoin extended its recent rally Friday, surpassing $31,000 and setting the token up for its best week since mid-March.
Bitcoin (BTC) soared to $31,230 Friday afternoon in New York. The largest crypto is now up around 20% since June 18, good for its best performing week since March 13, when the asset rallied around 26% on the heels of stablecoin USDC’s depegging.
Bitcoin has now marked its highest four-hour candle close in over a year.
Friday’s spike comes after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified before Congress on the state of monetary policy. The central bank head told lawmakers the inflation fight “has a long way to go,” adding that rate hikes are likely not through — despite an agreed-upon pause earlier this month.
The rally comes as investors continue to bet on increased institutional adoption and the potential for a bitcoin spot ETF approval in the coming months. BlackRock, Bitwise and WisdomTree have submitted applications in recent weeks.
“The Great Accumulation of bitcoin has begun,” Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of exchange Gemini, said in a tweet this week. “Anyone watching the flurry of ETF filings understands the window to purchase pre-IPO bitcoin before ETFs go live and open the floodgates is closing fast.”
Ether (ETH) similarly extended gains on Friday, moving 3% and approaching the $2,000 level. Equities, meanwhile, were in the red at time of publication, The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes lost 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively.
Get the day’s top crypto news and insights delivered to your email every evening. Subscribe to Blockworks’ free newsletter now.
Want alpha sent directly to your inbox? Get degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance, can’t-miss tweets and more from Blockworks Research’s Daily Debrief.
Can’t wait? Get our news the fastest way possible. Join us on Telegram and follow us on Google News.
Source: https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-passes-31k