Bitcoin Breaks Above $6,000 Level for First Time Since November

(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin’s nine-day rally has pushed it back above $6,000.

The biggest cryptocurrency outperformed its closest peers again in the digital market on Thursday and has now rebounded more than 90% from its trough last December.

It’s the latest milestone as the wild ride continues for the decade-old token, which crashed last year from a peak of more than $19,000 in 2017.

“The only store of value in the space right now is Bitcoin,” said Michael Novogratz, co-founder and chief executive at Galaxy Investment Partners LLC. “It doesn’t need to change -- it’s gold,” he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television from a conference in Las Vegas.

The token gained 2.7% to $6,060 at 9:43 a.m. in London, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 basket of the largest digital currencies rose just 1.1%, having fallen the previous day.

Bitcoin’s nine-weekday winning streak is the longest since May 2017. It shrugged off a brief sell-off Wednesday after Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, said hackers withdrew 7,000 Bitcoins worth about $40 million at the time.

Security remains one of the key obstacles to mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies, given the industry’s history of hacks. At a gathering Tuesday in Chicago, some of the largest traders including DRW Holdings Inc.’s Cumberland crypto unit and Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital Holdings discussed creating a blacklist of counterparties known to renege on trades or engage in nefarious activities.

“Bitcoin’s long-term technical profiles continue to point to a new up cycle,” said Fundstrat Global Advisors LLC technical strategist Rob Sluymer in a note May 8. He reckons the digital asset is continuing to rebound from support at its 200-week moving average, after telling investors last week to buy.

To contact the reporters on this story: Joanna Ossinger in Singapore at jossinger@bloomberg.net;Eric Lam in Hong Kong at elam87@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Todd White, Samuel Potter

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