Bitcoin experienced a significant spike as the final week of March commenced, successfully reclaiming the $70,000 level. The flagship cryptocurrency’s price increased by 7.8%, reaching $70,995.48, according to Coin Metrics. It even briefly rose to $71,239.31 in late afternoon trading as the stock market closed. Ether also experienced a jump, increasing by 7.4% to $3,634.80. Most other cryptocurrencies followed suit, riding the bitcoin wave.
Impact on MicroStrategy and Coinbase
MicroStrategy, which trades as a proxy for the price of bitcoin, surged 21%, while Coinbase advanced 9%. The mining sector also benefited from bitcoin’s rise, with Riot Platforms up 9%, CleanSpark rising 19% and Cipher Mining gaining 13%.
Bitcoin’s Recent Performance
Bitcoin had been in correction mode for the past week, after it hit an all-time high of $73,797.68 on March 14. Last Wednesday, it slid to as low as about $60,800. Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, said such declines are “well within the norm of historical bull market short-term corrections.”
The reason for Monday’s big run was unclear, but the cryptocurrency’s price action in March has been characterized by new highs followed by healthy pullbacks. Thorn suggested investors were taking a pause from selling shares of bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
Bitcoin’s Future Outlook
Despite its pullbacks, bitcoin is on pace to finish March on a winning note. It has gained 14% for the month and 66% so far for the first quarter.
