Bitcoin climbs to highest level in almost 7 weeks at $24K

ANKARA

The price of Bitcoin climbed to its highest level in almost seven weeks on Friday, hovering above the critical support level of $24,000.

Bitcoin, the world's largest crypto by market size, saw its price hitting $24,442 as of 0630GMT – its highest level since June 13. It was just above $24,000 for a 5.1% daily gain at 1434GMT.

Ethereum, the world's biggest altcoin by market value, was trading around $1,728 at the time for a gain of almost 6%.

Bitcoin dove below $18,000 level on June 18, its lowest level in 18 months, while total value of the crypto market dove to almost $800 billion.

Although the crypto market's total value stood around $1.1 trillion on Friday, it is still far from its record high level of $3 trillion that was reached in November.

The crypto market saw major losses in recent months with the US Federal Reserve entering an aggressive monetary tightening cycle.

While the Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate a total of 225 basis points since March, many central banks around the world have also increased their rates, lowering the total money supply in global markets and also causing some recession worries.

The steep rise in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies started on Wednesday when the Fed bumped rates by 75 basis points, instead of 100 points, and Chair Jerome Powell saying "it will likely be appropriate to slow the pace of increases."

The dovish signal from Powell has so far provided some relief for the US stock market indexes and cryptocurrencies.