Bitcoin breaches $29,000-mark despite Binance's legal woes

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Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, briefly topped $29,000 on Thursday, recording a new high for the year, despite US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) cracking down on crypto giant Binance.

The price of Bitcoin reached $29,132.82 today, at levels seen just before the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in early November last year, as per Cointelegraph Markets Pro.

"Bitcoin, the world’s largest digital asset is again trading above the $28,000 level due to highly volatile macroeconomic conditions in major economies like US and UK. Bitcoin is struggling to find firm support at the $28,000 level but BTC dominance is at 9 months high at 46.36%, which shows that Bitcoin is attracting smart money and Defi believers," said Om Malviya, President of a blockchain adoption entity Tezos India.

"One of the reasons for the latest Bitcoin rally is Bitcoin halving which is due in May 2024. As we approach the mega crypto event (BTC halving), we can expect wild swings in the BTC prices, if we go by historical evidence," Malviya said. 

“It is important to note that BTC is down by over 65% from its all-time high of $69,000 in November 2021. The overall crypto market cap is up by 4.32% and stands at the $1.18 trillion mark with BTC and ETH leading the effort," Malviya added.

On Wednesday, Bitcoin gained as much as 4.9% to $28,638. It had climbed to just below $29,000 on 22 March, the highest since June.

“This is a little bit of a moment for the crypto universe," said Peter van Dooijeweert at Man Solutions.

Bitcoin touched a 10-day low on Monday after Binance was sued by the US CFTC for allegedly breaking trading and derivatives rules. Binance said it didn’t agree with the characterisation of many of the issues