Crypto markets add to overnight gains in US morning trading on Friday with bitcoin climbing above $68,000, up nearly 17% since hitting $60,000 late yesterday.
Bitcoin is now higher by 2.5% over the past 24 hours. Ether has increased by 2.2% and solana 2%. Outperforming is XRP which has risen to $1.50, now higher by 17% over the last day.
Crypto-related stocks are seeing big upward moves on Friday after a dip in the previous session.
Strategy ( MSTR ) — which reported a fourth-quarter loss of $14.2 billion late Thursday — is up 14%, though at $122, still down 22% year-to-date. Galaxy Digital (GLXY) is up 15% and bitcoin miner MARA Holdings (MARA) is up 12%.
The underperformer on Friday was bitcoin miner-turned-AI infrastructure provider IREN ( IREN ), down 1.8% after disappointing earnings results Thursday night.
Saylor gets serious about Quantum
Those looking for bottom signals point to yesterday’s strategy earnings call, where Michael Saylor pledged a commitment to lead a Bitcoin security program that will address the quantum threat.
Some in crypto have argued that bitcoin’s security model faces a serious threat from quantum computing — a threat so imminent that many investors are either selling or refusing to allocate to bitcoin at all.
“Saylor’s announcement tells me that prices have finally made the Bitcoin community recognize and address quantum risk,” Quinn Thompson wrote.
Ready for technical bounce
Paul Howard, director at crypto trading firm Wincent, noted that bitcoin is now back at price levels last seen 14 months ago, with key momentum indicator RSI flashing deeply oversold conditions. He added that trading volume in BTC and ETH has risen to the highest in over two years. The technical setup that often invites at least a short-term bounce.
“It would be strange if we didn’t see at least some short-term returns here,” he said.
Updated (14:55 UTC): Adds the price of bitocin rising above $70,000.
