Bitcoin broke through $11,000 for the first time since January
Bitcoin broke through the $11,000 mark over the weekend for the first time since January.Fears over tighter regulation, which was one of the catalysts for the recent crash, appear to have subsided.Many commentators, including Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin, have warned that cryptocurrencies could fall to "near-zero" at any time.
Bitcoin broke through the $11,000 mark over the weekend for the first time since the end of January as its price continues to slowly rise following a violent sell-off at the start of the month.
The price of the cryptocurrency went as high as $11,279.18 on Sunday, its most elevated level since January 30, according to CoinDesk's bitcoin price index, which tracks prices from four major cryptocurrency exchanges.
On Monday, bitcoin was trading below $11,000, at $10,789, at around 9:30 a.m. London time (4:30 a.m. ET).
Bitcoin's price has been slowly climbing higher after a massive sell-off in early February, which was triggered by fears over tighter regulation, rumors of price manipulation in the market, and a hack on cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck that saw over $500 million stolen.
Bitcoin is up over 80 percent since it bottomed at $5.947.40 on February 6.
In South Korea, a key market for bitcoin, there were fears that an outright ban on cryptocurrency trading could come into effect. But as new measures were implemented, they were less strict than investors thought, and many sounded a positive note.
Earlier this month, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Christopher Giancarlo, and the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Jay Clayton, gave a testimony in front of the Senate Banking Committee on cryptocurrencies. They struck a positive tone, with Giancarlo saying that regulators should have a "thoughtful and balance response, and not a dismissive one."
This has also helped to alleviate fears of tighter regulation.
Bullishness appears to be returning to the cryptocurrency markets, with both ripple and ethereum also off their lows seen earlier this month.
Tom Lee, the first major Wall Street strategist to cover bitcoin, said recently that bitcoin will likely rise to $25,000 this year. Kay Van-Petersen, an analyst at Saxo Bank who correctly predicted the cryptocurrency's rally at the start of last year told CNBC in a recent interview that bitcoin could go to $100,000.
Still, there are a number of major organizations and figures warning about the potential for cryptocurrencies to crash. Goldman Sachs said in a note this month that most digital coins are likely to fall to zero. And Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin also warned Sunday that cryptocurrencies are a "hyper-volatile" asset class and "could drop to near-zero at any time."