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Shares of prominent bitcoin-adjacent companies rose in pre-market trading on Tuesday as the world’s largest cryptocurrency started 2024 by surpassing $45,000 for the first time in 21 months.
Bitcoin (BTC) has added more than 7% in the last 24 hours to about $45,600, the highest level since the start of April 2022. U.S.-traded companies such as crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN), software developer MicroStrategy (MSTR) – which owns a large number of bitcoin – and mining firms Marathon Digital (MARA) and Riot Blockchain (RIOT) rode the bullish momentum to show significant gains in pre-market trading.
Coinbase is up 6.34% at $184.95 at the time of writing, while MicroStrategy is up over 9% at $689.84. Marathon and Riot both added more than 10%.
Bitcoin’s latest surge indicates ever-increasing anticipation of a spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) being listed in the U.S. A Reuters report on Dec. 30 suggested that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could notify ETF sponsors as early as Tuesday that their applications would be approved.
Edited by Sheldon Reback.
