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Bitcoin (BTC) crossed $65,000 in European morning hours on Monday, inching closer to a lifetime peak of $69,000 set November 2021 as the value of bullish bets rose to a record. The largest cryptocurrency has added over 6% in the past 24 hours, while the CD20, a broad-based liquid index of various tokens, rose 5.6%. Bitcoin is now just 5% away from its record in U.S. dollar terms. It's already crossed peak prices against several major and emerging-market currencies in the past week. Further gains may be in the offing, signs from the futures market indicate. Open interest, or the number of unsettled futures bets, rose to an all-time high of $27 billion, data from Coinglass show. Rising interest is a sign of new money entering the market. Market capitalization also reached a record $2.8 trillion, crossing the $2.7 trillion level set in November 2021, data from multiple sources show.

While bitcoin posted significant gains to start the week, meme coins outperformed all assets, with some climbing as much as 30% over the last 24 hours. Pepecoin (PEPE) surged 30% on Monday to extend weekly gains to over 370% amid a rally sparked by the likes of dogecoin (DOGE) and bonk (BONK). Trading volumes for the frog-themed tokens jumped to lifetime highs of $3.6 billion, CoinGecko data show, as a risk-on environment likely fueled outsized bets on riskier assets. Pepecoin's gains were significantly higher than those of shiba inu (SHIB) and dogecoin – even as developers of some of these tokens introduced ecosystem upgrades. DOGE rallied 170% over the past week, while SHIB surged 200%.

In an insider trading case involving Ishan Wahi, Coinbase’s former product manager, his brother Nikhil Wahi and their friend Sameer Ramani, a U.S. court ruled that the trading of certain crypto assets on a secondary market, which Coinbase is, are securities transactions. “The court’s analysis remains the same even to the extent Ramani traded tokens on the secondary market,” the March 1 ruling said. “... Each issuer continued to make such representation regarding the profitability of their tokens even as the tokens were traded on secondary markets. Thus, under Howey, all of the crypto assets that Ramani purchased and traded were investment contracts.” The court took this critical position in a default judgment against Ramani. A default judgment is given when the defendant fails to respond to a court summons or does not appear in court.

Chart of the Day

The chart shows trends in Deribit's forward-looking 30-day implied volatility index for bitcoin, or BTC DVOL, since late 2022.

The DVOL surged to an annualized 80%, indicating heightened expectations for price turbulence in the coming four weeks.

Source: TradingView

- Omkar Godbole

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While bitcoin remains shy of its November 2021 all-time high in U.S. dollar terms, it has already breached record highs in local currencies in many markets around the globe.

The U.S. dollar index (DXY) is ahead 10.7% since November 2021, meaning many currencies across the world have lost value. Among the countries where bitcoin has hit new highs in local terms are economic powerhouses like China, Japan, the U.K. and India, as well as developing markets like Argentina, Turkey, and Egypt.

Bitcoin has passed all-time highs in 30+ countries, including China and India. pic.twitter.com/63CnC9DE0F

— Balaji (@balajis) February 28, 2024

"U.S. growth has remained exceptionally strong compared to Europe, the UK, and Japan, which has supported the [U.S. dollar]," Aurelie Barthere, an analyst in Nansen, wrote in a note to CoinDesk. "However, this is less clear going forward, as we have seen a series of weak consumption and housing data in the U.S. I see the DXY linked to crypto prices through the intermediary of the rates channel."

Japan has been a particularly weak case, with a 24% decline in the yen meaning bitcoin hit a record price in that country well before this week's fireworks that saw bitcoin prices soar.

"Japan’s government has been devaluing the yen, and the flow of liquidity has trickled into bitcoin as their fiat has weakened," March Zheng, Managing partner of Bizantine Capital explained in an interview with CoinDesk.