Investing.com - Bitcoin was hovering near its highest levels in a year on Tuesday, following a rally that has seen it climb around 70% this month and more than 140% for the year to date.
At 07:32 AM ET (11:32 GMT) Bitcoin was trading at $8,744.6 on the Investing.com index after hitting a high of $8,902.8 on Monday, its strongest level since May 2018.
After tumbling from record highs close to $20,000 reached in December 2017 the digital currency spent most of the first quarter of 2019 hovering below the $4,000 level before regaining momentum early last month.
Bitcoin’s gains have come against a background of a broad rally in riskier assets this year, amid signs of looser monetary policy from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. Its latest leg up has come as increasing questions have been raised about the stability of Chinese yuan, which is under pressure from U.S. trade measures that are slowing the economy down.
The rally has seen total crypto market cap increase to around $272 billion, of which Bitcoin accounts for around $154 billion.
Other major cryptocurrencies were broadly higher, with Ethereum up 1.6% at $270.24, XRP rising 4.8% to 0.42938 and Litecoin at $114.738, an increase of 0.9%.