As the banking sector continues to look fragile after Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse, a flurry of investors have pushed Bitcoin to its highest price in nine months.
The leading cryptocurrency pushed through the $28,000 mark on Sunday, hitting $28,527 before paring back gains. Bitcoin was trading up 2.5% over the past day at just under $28,000 on Monday morning, according to CoinMarketCap.
Its current boost puts Bitcoin well above the elusive $25,000 mark that it had failed to maintain on previous occasions earlier this year. Over the past week, as the news of bank failures rattled investors, Bitcoin has risen 25%, and some say it has regained its reputation as a store of value akin to “digital gold.”
Although some true believers have always used this label, the cryptocurrency in the past has been more correlated with stocks than gold.
After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the subsequent takeover of Signature Bank by the government, investors were quick to send the prices of regional bank stocks plummeting.
Elsewhere, Saudi National Bank Chairman Ammar Al Khudairy said the bank would “absolutely not,” provide another investment to Credit Suisse, which sent it careening. On Sunday, the Swiss government said rival UBS would acquire Credit Suisse for about $3.2 billion, a massive discount from its last reported tangible equity value of around $45 billion, according to the Washington Post.
The news sent global bank stocks plunging overseas on Monday, with Credit Suisse down 63% and UBS down 14%.
Despite Bitcoin’s rise, the second-most-popular cryptocurrency, Ether, was down 1% over the past 24 hours, after rising to $1,843 on Sunday—its highest since September.
Still, the boost to Bitcoin has led to big gains for the crypto market as a whole. On Monday the global crypto market cap stood at $1.18 trillion, up 1.4% over the past day.
