For the first time since June 10 of last year, right before
the cryptocurrency loan company Celsius stopped allowing withdrawals in the
lead-up to its collapse, bitcoin prices have sharply increased, taking the
digital currency above $30,000 (£24,118).

Even after that rebound, the token is still considerably
behind where it was prior to the “crypto winter” that was brought on
by the failure of the Terra stablecoin, which reached an all-time high of
$68,000 in November 2021.

But the steady rise in value of bitcoin over the past
several months has revived concerns about market manipulation and fueled talk
of a new cryptocurrency bubble.

11 April (Reuters) As investors increased their bets that
the U.S. Federal Reserve will soon halt its aggressive monetary tightening
campaign, major cryptocurrency bitcoin broke the crucial $30,000 mark for the
first time in 10 months on Tuesday. This move added to the cryptocurrency’s
consistent increases.

Some cryptocurrency enthusiasts have turned to bitcoin, the
original and most valuable token in the space, as a means of stifling concerns
that the entire conventional “fiat” economy would implode in the wake
of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure last month and the broader financial markets’
ensuing contagion. This is because bitcoin is the original and most valuable
cryptocurrency.

 

The US venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan, who in March
wagered $1 million that the price of a single bitcoin would surpass $1 million
by June of this year, exemplified this mentality. He predicted that the US
dollar will soon go through hyperinflation, driving up the price of a bitcoin
in US dollars.

 

Bitcoin was last up 1.96% at $30,233 after trading in Asia
reached a top of $30,438. After climbing 23% in March, it has increased by
almost 6% since the beginning of the month.

As a result of the banking sector volatility in March,
investors are anticipating the release of the US inflation report on Wednesday
to determine the Federal Reserve’s next course of action.

After a protracted, chilly crypto winter, the current rise
in bitcoin’s price is like a breath of fresh air, according to Tim Frost, CEO
of cryptocurrency yield platform Yield App.

This newfound optimism may be due to the U.S. Federal
Reserve’s projected change in monetary policy, which is predicted to produce a
more stable and hopefully predictable environment.

 

However, Friday’s carefully anticipated U.S. nonfarm
payrolls (NFP) report showed employers kept up a solid pace of hiring in March,
supporting the argument for rate increases and indicating a still-resilient
economy.

According to Joseph Edwards, an investment manager with
Enigma Securities, “there were some expectations of a potential miss on
NFP on Friday, and that’s bolstered confidence coming into” the readout of
U.S. consumer price index data.

Despite the low volume, crypto investment products had
inflows of $57 million last week, with the majority of the funds going to
bitcoin, according to digital asset manager CoinShares. The report indicated
that this puts digital asset flows back into the black for the year.

 

In the past 18 months, the market has done a tremendous job
of eliminating any individuals who were using leverage, according to Matthew
Dibb, chief investment officer at Astronaut Capital, a cryptocurrency asset
management based in Singapore.

We are going higher if (bitcoin) can survive the week
over $30,000.”

 

The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether, was close to its
eight-month high reached last week of $1,942.50. To $1,915.56, it was recently
up 1.56%.

The Ethereum network will undergo a significant upgrade on
Wednesday that is expected to give cryptocurrency investors access to more than
$33 billion in ether money.

 

Market participants will be able to redeem their
“staked ether,” or currencies they have locked up on the network
during the previous three years in exchange for interest, thanks to the
Shapella software patch.

Alkesh Shah, a strategist for Bank of America, said that
while Shapella is unlikely to immediately increase sell pressure on ether,
volatility may increase in the vicinity of the event.