A month after its halving and in the midst of Bitcoin Pizza Day this week, the leading cryptocurrency seems to be in the mood for celebration.

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Bitcoin was trading around $68,000 on Monday, which was up 3.4% in the last 24 hours and over 9% in the past week. Bitcoins all-time high is $73,835, which it reached on March 14, 2024.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, followed suit, hovering around $3,100, with a 3% gain. Solana, also known as ethereum-killer, saw more than a 6% jump Monday, to $180, meaning it now has jumped over 21% in a week. Top memecoins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu saw modest jumps of over 2% each.

Overall, the global cryptocurrency market was up nearly 3% on Monday, standing at $2.47 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

The surge in the crypto market is primarily driven by macroeconomic factors, such as the ease in the inflation rate.

Meanwhile, gold hit a record high on Monday, causing analysts to speculate about how it reached the new peak and whether Bitcoin will surpass its all-time high mark.

Possibly, the answer lies in the mining of metals and cryptocurrencies, said Neil Roarty, an analyst at investment platform Stocklytics.

The cost of extracting gold from the ground has been rising steadily due to various factors, including disrupted supply chains and Russias invasion of Ukraine, he said. Meanwhile, Bitcoins recent halving event reduced the rewards Bitcoin miners receive by 50% in April.

With political uncertainty and the promise of falling interest rates likely to sustain demand for both categories, the rising cost of supply should give the bulls of both camps reason to be optimistic.

In addition, spot Bitcoin ETFs have been performing well the past few days. According to industry tracker Farside, investors have been putting money into the various spot Bitcoin ETFs since May 15. Even Grayscales GBTC, which was in the red for months, was also receiving funds from investors.

Since May 1, BlackRocks iShares Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT, has seen an inflow of $15 billion, followed by Fidelitys FBTC with $8.4 billion, ARK 21Sharess Bitcoin ETF ARK with $2.4 billion, and Bitwises BITB with $1.8 billion, per Farside.

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Bitcoin is back above $68,000. Are we heading toward a new peak? - Quartz