Cryptos have been on a tear.
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty ImagesBitcoin and Ether, the two leading cryptocurrencies, notched all-time highs Tuesday as a rally in digital assets continued.
Bitcoin topped $68,525, according to price data from CoinDesk, surpassing previous record high levels set in October, before slipping back to $67,201. Ether rose to just shy of $4,840 in its second consecutive day of making fresh records before also edging lower to $4,812.
Those fresh highs brought Bitcoin’s market capitalization to nearly $1.29 trillion, according to data from CoinMarketCap, with the market cap of Ether above $570 billion.
The two leading cryptocurrencies have been on a tear over the past year. A reinvigorated rally over the past month comes amid a landmark Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund being launched and a positive technical update to Ethereum, the blockchain network underpinned by Ether.
Bitcoin is mostly viewed as a store of value, as well as a popular future payments platform, while Ethereum has exploded in popularity amid a wave of decentralized finance projects that use the network, boosting Ether prices.
Bitcoin was trading around $15,300 a year ago and has risen almost 350% in the last 12 months; Ether was changing hands below $450 in November 2020 and has shot up 975% since then.
“Analysts are suggesting that a lack of supply is a major factor as some reports show that 85% of existing supply has remained inactive for the past three months,” said Jonas Luethy, a trader at U.K. digital asset broker GlobalBlock, commenting on the surge in Bitcoin.
“This comes as supply held on exchanges also reaches a record low,” Luethy added. “Analysts are suggesting $75,000 as a target on the upside, but if the price takes a turn downwards, the price could fall to the 50-day moving average at around $56,000.”
Luethy noted that Ether was approaching a critical psychological milestone of $5,000, which was likely to prove tough to surpass. “The reason attributed to this strong price action is also a lack of supply, as Ethereum is being burned at a faster rate than it is produced,” the trader said.
The rise in crypto prices also has boosted select stocks. Coinbase (COIN), a publicly-listed cryptocurrency exchange, rose 5% Monday and was 1.1% up early Tuesday. MicroStrategy (MSTR)—a business intelligence company that holds significant amounts of Bitcoin—surged 7.8% Monday but fell 0.4% Tuesday.
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