TOKYO (Reuters) – Bitcoin has hovered around $ 60,000 a month, taking a breather from the weekend’s record as investors prepare for inflation worries and US stimulus spending to propel it even further.
The world’s most popular cryptocurrency fell to $ 58,956.90 at the start of the Asian session, falling from a record high of $ 61,781.83 on Saturday.
The rally could have been diminished by a Reuters report that India would ban digital assets, a rain cloud for bitcoin following this year’s high-profile approvals from Tesla’s Elon Musk, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and giants Goldman Sachs and Piatra neagra.
Bitcoin has doubled in 2021, after growing fourfold last year.
“Investments from institutional and corporate investors are growing. It’s what I call bitcoin financing, “said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief currency strategist at Mizuho Securities.
“It becomes an asset that investors can no longer ignore.”
The rise of the Bitcoin weekend was helped by an improvement in the risk appetite in the financial markets after President Joe Biden signed his $ 1.9 trillion tax incentive package into law and ordered the acceleration of vaccinations.
This momentum entered thinner markets over the weekend, with technical factors driving the move higher, according to Justin d’Anethan, sales manager at digital asset company Diginex in Hong Kong.
“The cryptocurrency market is hard to come by,” he said.
“A small move triggered many liquidations throughout Saturday and Sunday, making it a not-so-small move.”
Seth Melamed, the chief operating officer of Liquid cryptocurrency exchange in Tokyo, said that legislation like the one India is proposing will not be an impediment to subsequent gains for bitcoin.
“Because it is decentralized, bans or government acceptance are somewhat irrelevant,” Melamed said. “Capital will find a way.”
Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Additional reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani and Alun John; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Jacqueline Wong