Bitcoin jumps above $5,000 for first time since November
Cryptocurrency on track for its biggest one-day gain in a year
Bitcoin jumped above the $5,000 level for the first time in four months with other major cryptocurrencies also climbing.
The digital currency, which has languished below $4,000 for most of the year, jumped as much as 24 per cent, according to Reuters data based on the Bitstamp exchange. Bitcoin had trimmed those gains slightly to be 13.8 per cent higher at $4,705 and on track for its biggest one-day gain in more almost a year.
Despite the move, bitcoin remains more than 75 per cent below its record high of $19,666 seen in December 2017.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation had gained 5.7 per cent over the past 24 hours, according to coinmarketcap.com
Bitcoin fans on Reddit celebrated the move with ‘gifs’ of rollercoasters heading skywards and predictions that the “bull market has begun”.
Others, however, were more circumspect, “don't worry - when everyone on Reddit is all ‘we're back baby!!’ then it's a suckers rally and it crashes pretty soon afterward”.