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Digital currencies extended a stellar run Tuesday, with all major coins in the green and extending their winning start to the week.
Bitcoin, the No. 1 digital currency, added 5.6% Tuesday, breaking through $9,000 to an intraday high of $9,458.87 A single bitcoin was last worth $9,441.58.
The acceleration in digital-currency prices has seen the market cap for all cryptocurrencies increase by $100 billion in the past week, reaching $432 billion Tuesday, according to CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin breaks key levels
The surge past $9,000 took bitcoin above its mid-March highs — a critical resistance level for technical onlookers. Furthermore, the move took bitcoin above its 100-day moving average for the first time since Jan. 29.
“We have definitely seen a trend reversal, weekly momentum has bottomed and from here pullbacks will be bought,” said Rob Sluymer, technical strategist at Fundstrat.
Sluymer added that the next resistance band is the $9,677 retracement level and the 200-day moving average, which is currently around $9,800.
Grayscale hires new VP of finance
Digital currency and asset-management firm Grayscale Investments announced Tuesday that it had hired Samantha McDonald as its new vice president of finance, also overseeing legal and accounting.
“I felt with my background this was a natural transition for me,” said McDonald, who joins Grayscale after four years at SPDR Gold Trust, where she was an integral part in the launch of the GLDW exchange-traded fund.
In a statement, McDonald said Grayscale’s growing products remind her of the early days at SPDR.
Grayscale is one of the fastest-growing asset-management firms, with just shy of $2.7 billion in assets under management at the end of 2017, up from $164 million at the end of 2016. “The growth of products would not be feasible without someone of Samantha’s background,” said Michael Sonnenshein, managing director at Grayscale.
Prior to her role at SPDR Gold Trust, McDonald spent two years at Roubini Global Economics.
Grayscale is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group.
What are altcoins and futures doing?
Altcoins continued to move higher, led by bitcoin cash. The fourth-biggest cryptocurrency added a further 2.5% Tuesday, reaching an intraday high of $1,560.94, and has risen more than 100% in the past week.
Ether was the best performer of the major coins Tuesday, gaining 9.5% to $704.30; Litecoin was up 7.9% to $164.30; and Ripple’s XRP was up 6.4% to 93 cents.
Futures followed the spot market higher. The Cboe’s May contract finished up 6.5% to $9,460 and the CME Group Inc. April contract closed Tuesday at $9,455, up 6.9%.