If you’ve stopped paying attention to the day-to-day changes, cyrptocurrencies are soaring once again.
Prices for the major coins have shown substantial gains month-to-date in April as investors regain confidence in digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple after big drops during the first quarter.
Bitcoin, the most expensive of the cryptocurrencies, has seen its value rise 32% so far this month, climbing from $6,978.63 to over $9,246 in mid-morning trading Friday, according to CoinMarketCap.
Ethereum, meanwhile, is up 69% in April and Ripple is showing a 66% increase.
And the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index, a crypto market cap that tracks the performance of the 10-largest digital assets, shows a 68% overall increase in April.
What’s behind the jump? That’s less clear, as it often is with crypto fluctuations. Some analysts say now that the “tax selling pressure” is behind investors, prices are certain to rise. (Bitcoin bull Tom Lee is predicting that crypto will hit $25,000 by year’s end, and John Pfeffer says it could hit as high as $700,000.) And Ethereum has turned into an unlikely ally in China’s #MeToo movement, which could have helped it.
The increases are continuing today as well. All major cryptocurrencies are showing rises of 4% or more in mid-morning trading.