Bitcoin bulls back as world’s top crypto surges towards $40,000

The world’s most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin, jumped 15% on Monday to over $39,000, following two days of steady gains that may mean a turn towards a bullish crypto market.

The cryptocurrency pared some of the gains, trading at about $38,300 as of 9:00am GMT, after briefly topping $39,000 for the first time since mid-June. Bitcoin fell below $30,000 last week amid a global stock sell-off, raising concerns that the crypto could fall even further.

With the latest surge, more than $700 million of bitcoin short positions were liquidated on Monday, the most in at least the past three months, data from Bybt.com showed. Bitcoin futures also surged, with over 1,000 contracts traded within 10 minutes.

Bitcoin’s gains were followed by other cryptocurrencies, with the second-most valuable crypto ethereum up around 8% to above $2,300. The entire cryptocurrency market has added over $114 billion in value as of Sunday evening, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

Experts explain the bullishness with several factors, including recent uplifting comments from Twitter, Tesla, and Ark Invest CEOs at a bitcoin conference called ‘The B-Word’. Elon Musk said that Tesla may once again begin accepting bitcoin for its vehicle purchases, adding that both Tesla and space exploration company SpaceX own bitcoin, while he personally has bought bitcoin, ethereum, and dogecoin.

Also, Amazon Inc. has recently listed a job posting for a digital currency and blockchain expert, seen as a sign the e-commerce giant plans to work with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. An Amazon spokesperson said the company is “inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space,” and is “exploring what this could look like on Amazon,” as cited by Bloomberg.

The crypto market has recently been hit by concerns over the carbon footprint and energy consumption of bitcoin mining, a regulatory crackdown on the crypto in China, and criticism coming from European and US officials. Bitcoin is still around $27,000 off its mid-April high of nearly $65,000. However, some experts believe that the stresses bitcoin has been under are starting to wear off, indicating a return to the bullish crypto market.

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