Investing.com -- Shares in cryptocurrency-related companies jumped in premarket U.S. trading on Wednesday after Bitcoin surpassed the $59,000 mark, extending a rally in the digital asset into a fifth consecutive day.
By 05:22 ET (10:22 GMT), the price of Bitcoin had risen by 4.6% to $59,202.5, placing the world's most popular cryptocurrency within touching distance of an all-time high of more than $68,000 reached in 2021. It has surged by more than 16% in the past seven days.
Top crypto exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), as well as crypto miners Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA), Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT), CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK), Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR) and Bit Digital (NASDAQ:BTBT), all climbed prior the opening bell in New York.
Bitcoin’s stellar performance this year has been spurred on in part by the recent U.S. approval of exchange-traded funds that directly track the price of the token.
The approvals have drawn a slew of institutional capital into Bitcoin. However, retail trading volumes have remained relatively muted, in an indication that faith in the crypto industry has potentially been dented by a string of high-profile scandals and bankruptcies.
An announcement from MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR), the biggest corporate holder of Bitcoin, that it had recently purchased 3,000 tokens for about $155 million has also supported the cryptocurrency.