Bitcoin price jumps over 12% to roughly 3-week high to trade above $40,000

Gains for the crypto are still far from its mid-April peak near $65,000, but bullish investors view the recent price run-up as constructive and potentially auguring well for bitcoin values in the longer term.

The rally was being partly attributed to comments from Tesla Inc. TSLA, -2.81% CEO Elon Musk, who appeared to acknowledge that the electric-vehicle maker had sold some 10% of its crypto holdings but also said that the company would resume allowing purchases of its products in bitcoin if miners of the digital asset can confirm that they use 50% clean energy.

The moves in crypto come as stocks are under pressure in early trade as investors await a key update on Wednesday from the Federal Reserve about its inflation outlook. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.20%, the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.11% and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.65% were all struggling for altitude but holding near record-closing highs.

Meanwhile, other crypto assets were also climbing in sympathy with bitcoin, perhaps. Ether coins ETHUSD, -0.03% on the ethereum blockchain were up more than 8%, changing hands at $2,546.22, and meme asset dogecoin DOGEUSD, -0.85% was up about 7% to trade near 33 cents.

Those assets are also well off their recent peaks hit in May.