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The bitcoin price and the wider cryptocurrency market made a fevered leap back toward their recent highs on Friday, shaking off Thursday’s substantial sell-off while the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and other US market indices fell back into decline.
Bitcoin Price Makes another Run at $4,000
Bitcoin had been languishing near the $3,600 level for most of the day after dipping as low as $3,567 last night. However, minutes ago, the bitcoin price shot up by more than $200, taking it from 3,634 to $3,861 in a matter of seconds.
Other large-cap cryptocurrencies made similar moves, carrying the ripple price (XRP) to $0.365 and the ethereum price to $127. As of the time of writing, the aggregate crypto market cap tallied at $128.4 billion, marking an intraday increase of more than $8 billion, or 6.7 percent.
Factors behind the rally were not immediately clear, though today is a bitcoin futures expiration date on CME, and volatility often accompanies the expiration of crypto futures contracts.
Dow, S&P 500 Erase Pre-Market Gains
Notably, while the crypto market is not directly correlated to traditional equities, bitcoin’s move to the north occurred in tandem with a stock market break to the downside.
Both the Dow and S&P 500 posted notable drops in the hours following Friday’s opening bell, erasing pre-market gains that had suggested stocks would end the week on a high note. As of the time of writing, the Dow was down 85 points, or 0.37 percent, and the S&P 500 was down 0.28 percent while the Nasdaq flashed a 0.42 percent decline.
Click here for a real-time bitcoin price chart. Stay tuned for further coverage and analysis of today’s crypto market rally.
Featured Image from Shutterstock. Price Charts from TradingView.
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