Bitcoin surpasses $70,000 level again

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) – Bitcoin's price climbed above the $70,000 level again on Monday, as it now faces the $72,000 resistance level, which it failed to break last week.

The price of the world's biggest cryptocurrency managed to hit $70,000 around 11.20 a.m. EDT (1520GMT), while it was trading just above $70,500 at 12.17 p.m. EDT (1617GMT) for a daily gain of 2.4%, according to data from CoinMarketCap, a digital asset price-tracking website.

Bitcoin was last trading above that level last Thursday when it dove below the $67,000 level.

Ethereum was up 3.3% to $3,960 at the same time, while the world's biggest altcoin by market cap soared 26.5% in the last seven days, according to CoinMarketCap.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last Thursday approved applications from three exchanges to list spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which boosted the price of the altcoin.

While the decision of rule changes will allow a total of eight companies to begin listing spot Ethereum ETFs, the firms still have to apply for their funds and get approval from the SEC.

Some altcoins saw their prices increase more than 10% on Monday.

The total value of the cryptocurrency market stood at $2.63 trillion with a 2.5% daily gain at that time, while Bitcoin's share of the crypto market, known as dominance, was at 52.7%. Ethereum's was at 18.1%.

Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of $1 billion last week, which have now surpassed $13.6 billion since ETFs started trading in January, according to Farside Investors, a London-based investment management company that specializes in global equities and cryptocurrency.