Bitcoin Shoots For $28,000 As It Skyrockets On Its Biggest Day Of 2023

Despite showing signs of caving further earlier this week, Bitcoin took many by surprise after soaring on Wednesday to levels last seen in August.

At the time of writing, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap was trading at $24,596, up just over 10% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data. Ether similarly rode the bullish wave, albeit lagging with an 8% increase in the past day to trade at $1,679 at press time.

BTCUSD Chart by TradingView

Other cryptocurrencies also enjoyed an almost equally upbeat day. MATIC led in gains among the top ten cryptos by market cap, growing by just over 9% in the past day to trade at $1.37 at press time. BNB followed closely, gaining around 7.75% to perch above $320. Newer coins like Atptos and OKB experience a greater upthrust, gaining by over 13% and 17%, respectively.

Likewise, crypto-related stocks soared, with Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), Coinbase (COIN) and MicroStrategy increasing by 18%, 17% and 10%, respectively. In the past 24 hours, the global crypto market cap increased by almost 8% to tap $1.11 trillion.

According to data from Coinglass, a total of 54,198 short traders were liquidated in the surprise surge, with the total number of liquidations coming in at $211.48 million.

Bitcoin’s spike comes largely on the back of renewed investor confidence after Tuesday’s CPI report showed that inflation slowed to 6.4%. While markets initially parsed through several mixed signals from the report, Wednesday’s surge showed that investor anxiety about the U.S. economy’s future and the Fed’s next monetary policy moves is easing.

Most surprisingly, Bitcoin also managed to soar amid all the regulatory headwinds which have rocked the industry. In the past week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has unleashed a devastating crackdown on crypto exchange Kraken and Paxos, the issuer of Binance USD, the world’s third largest stablecoin.

Meanwhile, while the latest crypto spike has elicited bullish sentiments among some observers, some are worried that an upside move might not last for long. In an interview with crypto analyst Miles Deutscher, Gareth Soloway, president and chief market strategist at inthemoneystocks said that he believed “that the equity markets will collapse in the second half and will take Bitcoin down,” but also noted that “Bitcoin bottoms out in 2023 towards the end of the year.” 

According to Gareth, Bitcoin will likely start to reverse after bottoming, even without the stock market, as we get clarity on regulations.