Investing.com - Bitcoin soared above $13,000 on Wednesday, stoking investor hopes that the popular crypto may soon lay siege to the $20,000 level it reached fewer than two years ago.
Bitcoin rose 14.55% to $13,321 from a session low of $11,747.3.
The most recent surge has been attributed to an uptick institutional interest following Facebook’s plan to launch its own crypto, according to Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at the financial trading firm Oanda.
"Bitcoin has slowly – by its own standards – been rising in recent months but the launch of Facebook’s Libra has clearly been a catalyst for the recent surge," Erlam said.
But according to The Wall Street Journal, citing the latest CFTC Commitment of Traders Report, institutional investors held about 14% more bearish short positions in CME bitcoin futures last week than long positions, suggesting the uptick has been driven by retail investors.
Others, meanwhile, have pointed to weakness in the greenback amid expectations the Federal Reserve will cut rates in July as another tailwind that has inspired the recent rally.
The bulge in bitcoin’s market cap, often used to gauge demand for the popular currency, suggests that traders are betting that there’s further room for the rally.
Bitcoin’s market cap has surged 43% to $235 billion over the past week, while the overall crypto market cap has grown 30% to $377 billion boosting other cryptos.
Other cryptos were mostly higher. XRP rose 3.79% to $0.48694, Ethereum surged 12% to $346.88 and Litecoin rose 3.61% to $135.8.