Bitcoin continued its surge on Friday, in line with the recovery of global stock markets after a significant decline. The cryptocurrency rose as much as 5.3% to briefly hit $62,600, extending gains from Thursday. The move marked a reversal from earlier this week, where the market posted its steepest decline since the FTX crash in 2022. Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, also rose by 6%.
Nevertheless, these two tokens are still below the level of a week ago. Bitcoin on Friday posted its biggest one-day gain in more than 16 months.
Traders see recent volatility in digital assets as a result of macroeconomic factors as well as selling by crypto speculators.
In the medium term, macroeconomic factors "will continue to put pressure on risk assets," said Justin d'Anethan, head of business development in Asia-Pacific at Keyrock. The unwinding of yen trading "is not something that can be resolved in a few days," he added.
However, one of the takeaways from Monday's massive selloff in the crypto market was the "elimination of large leveraged positions," d'Anethan said.