LONDON – Bitcoin hit an eight-month high to surge past US$25,000 on Thursday as the volatile cryptocurrency continues to rise despite pressure from US regulators.

The digital coin has soared by 50 per cent since the start of the year, although it remains far off its peak of US$68,992, which it reached in November 2021.

Bitcoin reached US$25,249 on Thursday, its highest point since June and the first time it has topped US$25,000 since August.

A more optimistic outlook for the world economy is propping up the markets, including cryptocurrencies, with the Paris and London stock exchanges hitting all-time highs on Thursday.

“While regulatory crackdowns continue to drive some unease, there is clearly a growing sense of relief that the worst is behind it for the industry and 2023 could be a much better year,” said Mr Craig Erlam, an analyst at online trading platform Oanda.

US officials are cracking down on the crypto sector after the uproar caused by the recent bankruptcy of FTX and Alameda Research. FTX, once the world’s highest-profile crypto exchange, collapsed spectacularly in November, leaving nine million customers in the lurch and seeing co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried indicted for fraud by US prosecutors.

United States regulators on Monday ordered crypto firm Paxos Trust to stop issuing dollar-pegged cryptocurrency BUSD, a stablecoin, for trading platform Binance.

“The third-largest stablecoin was given an expiration date of February 2024 and the market has seemingly shrugged it off,” said analyst Riyad Carey of cryptocurrency data provider Kaiko.

As stablecoins are backed by one or more national currencies with a near fixed rate of exchange, they do not experience the swings in value that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have seen. AFP