Bitcoin tops US$80,000 for first time since May as US moves boost crypto

Washington’s buy-back efforts of US debt and policy support of cryptocurrency from the White House have sparked the rally

Bitcoin has broken above US$80,000 for the first time in three months, riding a broader rally in alternative assets triggered by Washington’s efforts to tame US bond yields.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency traded above US$80,900 on Tuesday, jumping roughly 25 per cent over the past week and signalling an early recovery from a prolonged market slump.

Bitcoin’s price hike this week shows characteristics of an early bull market, according to Allen Ding, director of Hong Kong-based Bitfire Research, a unit of Bitfire Group, a Hong Kong-listed crypto asset management firm previously linked to the Chinese crypto exchange Huobi, now known as HTX.

Gold also traded at a three-month high of US$4,698 an ounce on Tuesday, extending a 5.1 per cent gain last week.