Topline
Bitcoin rose to its highest levels in two weeks Saturday, trading above $41,000 after swooning as low as $33,505 on January 24.
Key Facts
Bitcoin reached a high of $41,956 around 10:45 a.m., according to CoinGecko, before settling back to $41,625 as of 12:52 p.m. Saturday.
The leading cryptocurrency is up 3% over the past 24 hours and 19% from the year’s low.
Other top digital currencies are also on the rise, with ether up 4.5% over the past 24 hours—rising above $3,000 for the first time since January 21—and Binance coin up nearly 10%, according to CoinGecko.
Key Background
Cryptocurrencies fell sharply in January after the Federal Reserve signaled it would likely move more quickly than expected to remove pandemic-era stimulus due to high levels of inflation, Continuing a swoon in which bitcoin fell nearly 50% from from its record high of $69,044 in November, losing about $600 billion in market value. The recovery comes following a turbulent week in equity markets in which U.S. stocks edged slightly higher amid mixed earnings reports, with Meta booking a $10 billion loss for 2021 on its Metaverse project and Amazon’s reporting strong earnings. Bitcoin’s 11% gain on Friday was the largest single-day gain for the cryptocurrency since June.
Tangent
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) bought between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of bitcoin on January 25, according to a U.S. Senate financial disclosure, when it was trading between $35,000 and $37,000.
