Bitcoin surged above $39,000 for the first time since mid-June as sentiment turned bullish following a recent sell-off.
The cryptocurrency was trading at around $38,567 at 7:10 a.m. ET Monday, according to CoinDesk data, up nearly 12% in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin had earlier surged as much as 12% hit a 24-hour high of $39,544, the highest level since June 16.
Bitcoin’s rally lifted other cryptocurrencies with ether up 8.7% at $2,345. The entire cryptocurrency market added more than 100 billion in value in 24 hours, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com.
The rally comes after bitcoin recently fell below $30,000 after a global sell-off in stocks, sparking fears that it could plunge even further.WATCH NOWVIDEO18:23El Salvador made bitcoin a legal currency. Now it gets interesting
“I think we saw an accumulation period around 29-30K, indicating bullishness and a potential move towards $40K for Bitcoin,” said Vijay Ayyar, head of business development at cryptocurrency exchange Luno.
Musk, Dorsey, Wood in focus
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood all recently spoke during a closely watched bitcoin conference called “The B-Word.”
Musk said that Tesla would likely start accepting bitcoin for vehicle purchases again as a greater share of bitcoin mining switches to renewable energy. In May, Tesla suspended vehicle purchases using the cryptocurrency out of concern over the “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining.”
Bitcoin mining is the energy-intensive process of creating new coins, which involves solving complex math problems. The computational power required to do so also consumes a lot of energy.WATCH NOWVIDEO08:42Why does bitcoin use so much energy?
“The Chinese trading day has opened up, and the Elon/Jack/Cathie talk was super bullish,” said Alex Brammer of Luxor Mining, a cryptocurrency pool built for advanced miners.
There have been other bullish headlines for bitcoin. E-commerce giant Amazon is looking to add a digital currency and blockchain expert to its payments team, suggesting it could be taking a closer look at bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. An Amazon spokesperson said that the company is “inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon.”
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