Bitcoin price highest since August ahead of Chinese New Year

Bitcoin rallied to its highest levels since August ahead of celebrations for the Lunar New Year holiday throughout Asia, surging at the start of the weekend for a second straight time.

The largest cryptocurrency rose as much as 2.1% to $22,786, the highest level since August 18. It also had strong gains over Friday and Saturday last weekend. Second-ranked Ether advanced as much as 2.4% to levels not seen since September. This comes amid more predictions that the cryptocurrency market has passed its lows, and at the start of the Lunar New Year holiday celebrated across much of Asia, also often referred to as Chinese New Year.

“Buying Bitcoin at the end of the first day of Chinese New Year and selling it 10 trading days later would have returned +9%, on average, with all of the last eight years (2015-2022) showing positive returns,” said Markus Thielen, head of research at Matrixport, in a note Friday.