Bitcoin’s rise to $31K caps eventful first 6 months of 2023
Bitcoin eclipsed $31,300 on Monday — a level that caps off the first six months of 2023, leaving the asset up roughly 89% on the year. A 2%-plus bump on the day followed a confluence of various bullish factors for bitcoin (BTC) — from a banking crisis to an institutional adoption narrative that has more recently come in the form of spot bitcoin ETF applications. The collapse of crypto exchange FTX created a lot of “forced selling” that likely would not have happened otherwise — creating a market bottom of sorts, according to Andrew Lawrence, co-founder and CEO of on-chain custody solution Censo Inc. “So, to some extent, the rise of BTC since then is partly related to something of a mean reversion,” he told Blockworks. But more than that, a series of banking failures that began in March sparked concern around deposit safety. Some, Lawrence said, turned to bitcoin as a “bearer-asset hedge.” Read more: Banking sector stumbles are boon for DeFi Participation in the asset clas...