The price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies advanced on Thursday, building on gains from earlier in the week after the December consumer-price index showed prices sank last month for the first time in two-and-a-half years. The price of a single bitcoin traded just shy of $19,000 per coin Thursday afternoon, the highest level since Nov. 8, according to data from CoinDesk. On that day, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried revealed that he had tentatively agreed to sell part of FTX’s business to Binance in a deal that later fell through, precipitating the exchange’s collapse into bankruptcy. Bankman-Fried has since been indicted and is awaiting trial for a number of related charges in the U.S. Cryptocurrencies’ latest price gains also followed news, out Wednesday, that FTX had managed to recover some $5 billion in assets, which may also be helping to bolster confidence. Crypto-linked stocks also saw strong gains on Thursday, with shares of MicroStrategy Inc. MSTR rising nearly 6% to $206.24, while shares of Coinbase Global COIN rose 4.7% to $45.89.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
