Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, surged past $21,000 on Saturday.
The move has heartened crypto investors, who have been rocked by the collapse of several high-profile crypto companies, including cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
This is the first time Bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.80% has surpassed $20,000 since Nov 8, 2022, following 11 days of gains.
The rally has inflicted pain on the bears, who have liquidated hundreds of millions of dollars in short positions. According to Coinglass, these totaled around $125 million for Jan. 14 alone, with the period beginning Jan. 11 bringing nearly $300 million in short-term liquidations.
Second-largest token Ether ETHE, +0.36%, rose as much as 9.7%, and others like Cardano ADAUSD, -0.09% and Dogecoin DOGEUSD, -1.80% also posted gains. Solana’s SOLUSD, +0.70%, up as much as 35%.
The gains have propelled the total market cap of the cryptocurrency market above the $1 trillion mark for the first time since November, according to data from CoinGecko.
After falling from just over $67,500 to a low of nearly $15,000 for a 77% loss from high to low, Bitcoin spent about 13 months mostly flat until buyers reappeared this week.
See also: What’s behind Bitcoin’s great rally and why crypto traders are betting on the worst is over
Bitcoin’s recent rise in value comes after the U.S. Department of Labor released data showing that inflation is easing and consumer prices rose 6.5% in December, compared to 7.1% in November.
“Cryptoassets have performed well after soft CPI pressure, suggesting that crypto’s correlation with macro is not going away anytime soon,” Sean Farrell, head of digital asset strategy at Fundstrat, told Bloomberg.
“The continuation of price action this week is certainly encouraging,” and barring forced liquidations by struggling crypto firm DCG, “there is a strong possibility that the all-time bottom in crypto prices has been reached.”