Cryptocurrencies are off to a good start this week.

Ether, the world's second-largest digital currency, rose more than 4% in 24 hours on Monday to a new all-time high of $4,700. According to Coin Metrics statistics, the token was last trading at $4,740.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, rose 7% to $66,250, edging closer to a record high of $66,900 established in late October.

The reason for the relocation was unclear. Cryptocurrencies are notorious for their extreme volatility, with price fluctuations of up to 20% higher or lower being very usual.

A $70,000 price for bitcoin now "seems imminent," according to Mikkel Morch, executive director of crypto hedge fund ARK36.

"Importantly, the increase does not appear to be driven by leverage, but rather by increased demand on the spot market, where there is currently very little sell-side liquidity," Morch wrote in an emailed note on Monday.

DeFi

It comes as interest in DeFi grows, but regulators have recently taken notice, and experts have warned that a crackdown is on the way.

Ethereum also serves as the foundation for several nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, which act as digital receipts for rare commodities such as online art.

This year has witnessed a surge in activity, with one token selling for a record $69 million at Christie's.

Even yet, either has some stiff competition. Rival tokens like as solana and cardano have seen significant price increases this year.

Video Courtesy Of CNBC

For the first time in 6 months - Bitcoin broke $ 60,000, approaching its all-time high of $64,863.10.

Confidence is growing among investors as rumors hit the market that the US SEC will approve an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on bitcoin futures as soon as next week.

The previous day teased traders when Bitcoin peaked at $ 57,125 near midnight on Thursday, and left many feeling we were on the cusp of finally crossing $60k again. 

At the time of publishing, Bitcoin sits just 8% away from it's all time high... 

Now the question is: Will crossing the $60k threshold be the warning sign for people sitting on the sidelines to finally take the leap and buy Bitcoin?  Will current traders HODL what they have and buy more?

Or will traders be tempted to take profits now, while the price is close to BTC's all-time high?

We expect to officially know the SEC's decisions on bitcoin futures ETFs on Monday, but so far there's been nothing coming out of the SEC to dispute the rumor - a sign it's likely true.

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Author: Ryan Stewart
Silicon Valley News Desk | Breaking Crypto News

This bullish cycle of bitcoin began officially in July when it once again broke $10,000. This brought Bitcoin back into the headlines and caught the eye of those who sat on the sidelines in 2017.

It became clear that this time, many retail and institutional investors were not going to simply watch as it continued to rise.

Big money and everyday investors dove in head first, the top among them including Grayscale bitcoin fund (GBTC) which currently exceeds 10 billion in crypto assets, and MicroStrategy which just raised another $650M to bring their holdings to $1 billion.  Other notable entry's include JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.

Before today all this activity and Bitcoin's corresponding rising price was classified as 'recovery' - because anything under $19,834 happened once before, when it peaked in 2017.

But as of today, Bitcoin is officially done recovering and back to breaking new ground!

It's still on the rise as I write this, we have now smashed through the previous record and BTC currently sits at $21,346 (at time of publishing).

I expect the momentum to slow down soon, but it could still gain some before then. 

Two Main Factors At Play:

It's really the classic law of supply and demand at play here.

The demand we talked about above, mixed with so many investors keeping their Bitcoins completely off of exchanges and in secure offline storage (aka 'cold storage').

Buyers, and there's lots of them, are basically currently forced in to a bidding war over a very limited supply of Bitcoin for sale, driving up the price at an abnormally fast pace.

No end in sight...

Ask the average Bitcoin investor how high they think it will go, and the answers you'll hear indicate most will continue holding on to theirs.

In fact, much of the Bitcoin for sale isn't *really* for sale, in the sense that they're done owning it - it's traders capitalizing on Bitcoin's famous volatility, and swing trading.   

Selling some, but at the same time placing buy orders to purchase it back when the price drops, believing any dip will be followed by a rise back to the price they sold at.  So far, a trading strategy that has paid off.

The next thing to watch out for: the #2 cryptocurrency launches it's upgraded version - Ethereum 2.0 is expected to give ETH a nice boost as well.