Carly Wanna
Bitcoin briefly climbed back above $30,000 for the first time in a week, with traders taking advantage of lingering concern about the health of US banks to make the case for the digital alternative.
The largest cryptocurrency rose as much as 7.3% to $30,007, before dropping just below the closely-watched threshold. Ether gained about 6%, while Solana and Cardano increased similar amounts.
Prices of digital assets jumped Wednesday amid reports that First Republic Bank advisers have lined up potential buyers of new stock as part of a rescue plan for the beleaguered lender. The US is currently unwilling to intervene on First Republic, CNBC reported. The failure of several crypto-friendly banks earlier this year helped to bolster the argument that crypto was isolated from banking sector woes.
“The move in BTC looks highly related to the banking crisis, with First Republic emerging as the clear focus,” said Stephane Ouellette, chief executive of FRNT Financial Inc, a crypto brokerage firm.
Google trends data shows that over the past seven days that in the US, the search terms ‘First Republic Bank’ and ‘FRC’ (the bank’s stock ticker) are those most closely associated with ‘Bitcoin,’ Ouellette said.
