Bitcoin climbed back towards its highest levels this morning and second-largest rival Ethereum marked an all-time high as there was no rest for crypto markets over the weekend.
Bitcoin was up 5% over the last 24rs to US$66,055.96 at the time of publication, hitting a two-week high of US$66,170 on Monday morning.
The biggest cryptocurrency had gone through a mini slump over the past few weeks, falling 13% since setting its new record in October, dropping as low as US$58,455.40 at the end of October.
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, followed Bitcoin in its price movement as it soared to another all-time high, reaching US$4,768.07.
Ethereum is up nearly 59% since the start of October, with its continued strength coming as cryptocurrency and blockchain technology becoming increasingly accepted by banks and organisations.
Autralia’s Commonwealth Bank last week launched new pilot scheme to open up investment in crypto for all customers, while investment bank Goldman Sachs predicted late last month that Ethereum will end the year almost double in price to US$8,000.
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said that, “the recent surge in the crypto asset partly seems to have been caused by investors piling in, seeing it as a hedge against inflation.”
Upwards movement in price can also be attributed to the “era of cheap money looks set to hang around longer,” according to Streeter, but she warned that using crypto as an inflation hedge is “a highly risky strategy given just how volatile the cryptocurrency is, amid other pressures on its valuation like clampdowns by authorities and even comments on social media.
“As Bitcoin increases in value, mining of the crypto asset also ramps up, which is still hugely energy intensive, despite some moves to power more proof of work using renewables, and it’s likely to attract more adverse headlines especially given the focus on soaring emissions during COP26."