This Week in Coins: Bitcoin Touches $70,000 As Major Altcoins Soar

Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt.

It had been a long time coming: Bitcoin hit a new all-time high on Tuesday, soaring past its November 2021 record of $69,044 in the U.S. before dipping again.

Then, on Friday, it did it again—this time by jumping above $70,000. This is remarkable, considering that the coin was trading for below $17,000 in January 2023.

Bitcoin’s rise was aided by record-setting trading days in the spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs). BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust has been particularly popular.

The price of Bitcoin is now $68,413, up 10% over the past week, per CoinGecko data.

And Ethereum, the second biggest digital asset, hit $4,000 for the first time since 2021. Over seven days, it has soared by 13% and the price of ETH stands at $3,894.

But the two biggest coins’ gains over the week have been pretty tame compared to other assets. Meme coins, for a start, have jumped in value a ridiculous amount. Shiba Inu (SHIB) is the winning asset out of the top 20 biggest digital coins and tokens, after having jumped nearly 135% over the week.

Its rival, Dogecoin, had a very good week—it nearly doubled in price. It has since dropped and is now priced at $0.1749. It touched $0.19 on Monday, and the Elon Musk favorite is still up over 27% the past seven days.

Elsewhere, Solana, the fifth biggest digital asset, rose above the $150 price point on Friday for the first time since January 2022. The token behind the Ethereum-competing blockchain is now up more than 13% over the past week and is priced at $145.82.

Bitcoin spin-offs like Bitcoin Cash also did well, although the gains were fleeting. BCH, the 20th biggest coin, was up nearly 40% over a seven-day period at one point—but it has now fallen back to $430 after peaking over $450 yesterday. BSV now trades at $109, up over 6% for the week.

Despite the surge in alts and their tremendous gains, it’s worth noting that most of them are well below their all-time highs from the previous bull market in 2021. Many still have a long way to go.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.