Bitcoin moved back near the $40,000 mark as prices of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency recovered from the seven-day lows near the $33,000 level on the back of fresh institutional demand. US-based digital asset investment fund Grayscale Holdings on Friday said that its total crypto assets under management (AUM) stood at $30.4 billion.
Over the past 24 hours, bitcoin traded in the $37,388.34-39,845.92 range, while it was trading at $38,900, higher by 0.30% at around 12.50pm IST on Monday, as per data available with crypto exchange WazirX.
Also Read | Scarcity on high seas hurting India’s exports
Meanwhile, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, ether, hit a fresh all-time high above the $1,761.35 over the weekend. The digital currency pared some of the losses and was trading at $1,631, up 0.83% on Monday.
The rally in ether is part of the recent surge in DeFi coins.
“With ether touching a new all-time high and $32 billion locked in DeFi, last week was all about altcoins. Institutional buying at the $33,000 level brought bitcoin prices back up to near $40,000,” said Vikram Rangala, chief marketing officer, ZebPay, a crypto exchange.
According to Bloomberg, decentralized finance, or DeFi, allows people to do things like lend or borrow funds without the need for traditional intermediaries such as banks. Many DeFi applications are run on the Ethereum blockchain.
Meanwhile, Dogecoin, which started as a joke in 2013, reached a new all-time high of $0.082 post Tesla chief Elon Musk’s tweets.
Dogecoin or DOGE was back in the limelight on Thursday with the cryptocurrency surging over 58%. The world’s richest person came out in support of the digital currency, tweeting, “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto”. Another tweet read, “No highs, no lows, only Doge.”
Meanwhile, other major cryptocurrencies such as ripple, stellar and tether were trading up to 2% in the red on Monday morning.
