Benzinga - by Shivdeep Dhaliwal, Benzinga Editor.
Bitcoin was seen trading over the psychologically important $40,000 level on Sunday evening with Ethereum and Dogecoin also showing an uptick in prices as the global cryptocurrency market cap rose 1.6% higher to $1.51 trillion.
Bitcoin crossed the $40,000 level for the first time since late April 2022, meanwhile, Ethereum was above the $2,200 level at the time of publishing.
The rise in Bitcoin prices comes amid a backdrop of a gradual rally, which has been fueled by expectations linked with the approval of a Bitcoin Spot ETF by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
| Cryptocurrency | Gains +/- | Price (Recorded at 8:57 p.m. EST) |
| Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) | +2.92% | $40,660.97 |
| Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) | +2.03 | $2,214.32 |
| Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) | +0.15% | $0.086 |
Sunday's Bitcoin action was in contrast with movement in other risk assets. Stock futures were largely flat at the time of publishing. On the other hand, Gold prices hit a record high on Friday. Notable Gold bull, Peter Schiff, was left unimpressed by Bitcoin's $40,000 move and pointed out that the precious metal has "completely broken out."
Top Gainer (24-Hours)
| Cryptocurrency | Gains +/- | Price (Recorded at 8:57 p.m. EST) |
| Terra Classic (LUNC) | +37.3% | $0.0002 |
| Terra (LUNA) | +23.09% | $0.99 |
| ORDI (ORDI) | +18.87% | $38.53 |
Analyst Takes: Cryptocurrency trader Michaël van de Poppe said that Bitcoin was "up massively on the year" even when the sentiment was "we were going to have a really hard period."
#Bitcoin is acting close to $40K.It's up massively on the year, while the sentiment was that we were going to have a really hard period.
To be fair, we've experienced the longest bear market on #Altcoins in history.
Every one of you deserves the bull.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) December 3, 2023
It should be noted that Van de Poppe said earlier that spot Bitcoin ETF approvals could come between January 5 and January 10.
It's pretty clear that between January 5-10th we'll be seeing an approval or delay on the Spot #Bitcoin ETF applications.Until that day, I don't think we'll have very large corrections, but a trend upwards. December is probably a good month in that regard with the hype.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) December 1, 2023
Market intelligence platform, Santiment said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that "#FUD & #FOMO toward the ongoing #ETF confirmation dates will dictate whether $50K arrives sooner rather than later."