The cryptocurrency markets are currently experiencing a robust rally, with flagship digital asset Bitcoin (BTC) skyrocketing beyond the US$30,000 threshold during this morning’s trading session in Asia.
The BTC/USDT trading pair is looking at its fourth consecutive day of substantial gains, pushing its weekly performance above a 21% increase.
As of the time of this writing, the pair is trading at US$30,085, barely below the annual high of US$31,000 reached in mid-April.
The reason for Bitcoin’s significant uptrend isn’t surprising – despite causing a stir in the core cryptocurrency community, the launch of the new EDX cryptocurrency exchange has seemingly invigorated investors.
Supported by traditional finance titans like Fidelity, Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW), and Citadel Securities, EDX could potentially offer exposure to Bitcoin’s price fluctuations to millions of savvy new investors.
Attention is also directed towards the UK today, as the Bank of England (BoE) is set to announce its latest interest rate hike. A rise of 25 basis points is more or less guaranteed, but an increase of 50 points is also within the realm of possibility.
Typically, risk assets such as Bitcoin would decline following such an announcement, but given Bitcoin’s current bullish momentum, traders might want to think twice before heavily shorting BTC/USDT.
In a related development, nearly US$81 million in short-BTC positions were eliminated from the market on Wednesday, the largest volume in at least the past three months. Ethereum’s (ETH) spot price is not far behind Bitcoin, soaring 17% over the last week to exceed US$1,900.
Litecoin (LTC), another significant altcoin that can be traded on the new EDX exchange, has seen a near 20% increase.
Other altcoins making notable strides include Solana (SOL) and Polygon (MATIC), but the Shiba Inu (SHIB) meme coin truly stands out, skyrocketing 27% compared to last week.
Just this Thursday, SHIB saw an additional surge of over 10%, spurred by the announcement that its developers are creating a protocol aimed at connecting tangible assets with NFTs as part of the Shibarium ecosystem expansion.
