Bitcoin surpasses $30,000 mark as investors eye end of rate rises

Bitcoin surpasses $30,000 mark as investors eye end of rate rises

Bitcoin broke the $30,000 barrier on April 11 adding to steady gains amid expectations that the American central bank will soon stop aggressively tightening monetary policy.

At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency was trading at $30,070, up 1.4 percent from $30,438 at its peak in the Asian trade. The original cryptocurrency has gained nearly 6 percent since April beginning after rising 23 percent in the previous month.

US inflation data on April 12 will determine the Federal Reserve's next steps after the banking sector turmoil in March raised expectations that the central bank would ease up on rate hikes.

The closely watched US nonfarm payrolls (NFP) report showed employers maintained a strong hiring pace in March, suggesting the economy is still resilient.

"There were some expectations of a potential miss on NFP on Friday, and that's bolstered confidence coming into CPI," said Joseph Edwards, investment adviser at Enigma Securities.

Crypto investment products attracted $57 million in inflows last week - even though volume was low - with bitcoin attracting most of the money, CoinShares said on April 10. The report showed that digital asset flows have returned to positive territory for the year as a result.

"The market has done a great job at culling all leveraged participants in the past 18 months," said Matthew Dibb, chief investment officer at Astronaut Capital, a Singapore-based crypto asset manager.

"If (bitcoin) can survive the week over USD 30,000, we are going higher."

The second largest cryptocurrency ether stood near its roughly eight-month peak last week of $1,942.50. At last check, it was up 0.5 percent at $1,920.40.

More than $33 billion in ether will be available to crypto investors on April 12 as part of a major upgrade to the ethereum blockchain. With Shapella, market players will be able to redeem their "staked ether" – coins they have deposited and locked up on the network over the past three years.

Shapella is unlikely to directly impact ether prices, but there could be an increase in volatility surrounding the event, according to Bank of America strategist Alkesh Shah.