Bitcoin (BTC) surged 8.26% early Friday to breach the psychological $20,000 level and lead the broader crypto market’s recovery.
The industry’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap plummeted as low as $18,644 on Wednesday and was mostly trading between $19,200 and $19,300 yesterday.
Today’s breakout, however, pushed the price of Bitcoin to $20,808 by press time, a level not seen since August 26, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The bullish price action also helped to propel the cumulative market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies back above the $1 trillion mark, with Bitcoin currently dominating 38.5% of the market.
Ethereum (ETH) has meanwhile surged 5.2% over the past 24 hours and is currently changing hands at $1,706, per CoinMarketCap.
Similar to Bitcoin, this is a two-week high for the market’s second-largest cryptocurrency, which is now in the final stages of preparing for the historical merge event that will see the network transition from its current proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm to a less energy-intensive proof-of-stake (PoS) model.
Solana, Polkadot post solid gains
Elsewhere in the market, Solana (SOL) has been the best-performing asset among the top ten cryptocurrencies as the price of the token rallied 9.3% over the past 24 hours to hit a daily high of $35.66.
Polkadot (DOT) is on a similarly impressive run—the 10th largest asset is up 9.6% on the day, changing hands at $7.80.
Outside the top ten, Cosmos (ATOM) and Chainlink (LINK) have both posted double-digit gains—up 22.9% and 12.5% over the day.
Today’s market recovery is coming hot on the heels of the European Central Bank’s decision to raise eurozone interest rates by a record 75 basis points, the second straight rate increase since July.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, meanwhile, said on Thursday he is “strongly committed” to fighting inflation, meaning there would likely be more interest hikes on the horizon.
Coupled with Powell’s comments, the ECB’s moves saw the euro rise sharply to $1.0070 from $0.9960 at yesterday’s closing. The Asian stock exchanges also did well on Friday morning thanks to the weakening of the U.S. dollar, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index up 2.69% as of this writing.
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