Bitcoin Price Soars Past $41000 to 19-Month High

4 Dec 2023

Investopedia

Key Takeaways

Bitcoin's price rose above $41,000 Monday from less than $38,000 over the weekend.The current level is the cryptocurrency's highest price since April 2022, before the collapse of crypto stablecoin TerraUSD.In the past few days, more than $120 million in short positions on Bitcoin have been liquidated.Gold, a store of value some compare to Bitcoin, reached an all-time high Sunday.Crypto-focused stocks Coinbase and Microstrategy rose sharply Monday.

Bitcoin's price rose above $41,000 on Monday, reaching levels not seen since before the collapse of the crypto stablecoin TerraUSD in May 2022.

Bitcoin has continued to show strength as the crypto market anticipates the approval of a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and looks toward the upcoming Bitcoin halving event.

According to crypto derivative data analysis platform Coinglass, more than $109 million in Bitcoin short positions have been liquidated in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, gold also has reached an all-time high, above $2,115, in recent days. Bitcoin's fans sometimes refer to it as "digital gold" and argue it acts as a similar store of value over the long term. A positive correlation between the two assets is often seen as an indication of Bitcoin's further adoption and development toward that goal.

On X (formerly Twitter), El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced Monday that the country's Bitcoin holdings are now in the black in dollar terms. Bukele began purchases on behalf of El Salvador near the peak of the previous bull market cycle in 2021.

"Of course, we have no intention of selling; that has never been our objective," Bukele said in the X posting Monday. "We are fully aware that the price will continue to fluctuate in the future, this doesn’t affect our long-term strategy."

Shares of crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) rose more than 5% Monday, and Microstrategy (MSTR)—a technology company that, as of Nov. 29, allegedly held nearly 175,000—gained by 7% since Friday's close.