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Bitcoin Briefly Tops $70,000 As GameStop Mania Spurs Cryptocurrencies
(Bloomberg) — Bitcoin briefly topped $70,000, with cryptocurrency investment products seeing inflows for a fourth straight week and the latest GameStop frenzy driving memecoin speculation.
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According to CoinShares International Ltd, crypto asset inflows totaled $185 million in the week to May 31. Investors sent $2 billion into digital asset investment products, including Bitcoin ETFs, in May. Bitcoin briefly topped $70,000 on Monday, for the first time in a week, while most other cryptocurrencies were mixed following an initial rise.
Traders said the earlier gains were most likely the result of a spillover effect from GameStop stock gains led by the Reddit account behind the 2021 meme stock mania.
According to tracker CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency on the Solana blockchain that uses GameStop’s name, logo and ticker surged more than 120% on Monday, while the coin has no legitimate affiliation with the company. The move follows a surge in GameStop Corp. shares after Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty on X, posted a screenshot on Reddit on Sunday that revealed his large stake in GME stock. Dogwifhat, one of the most popular memecoins this year, remains little changed.
“The giant GME derivatives position announced by Roaring Kitty on Sunday evening served to catalyze the rally in the cryptocurrency sector, with Doge and BTC rising significantly starting moments after her Reddit post began circulating broadly,” said Spencer Hallarn, global head of over-the-counter trading at digital asset firm GSR.
Also driving the market are new fund inflows at the start of the new month, said Shiliang Tang, president of major trading firm Arbelos Markets.
But with the outperformance of the cryptocurrency under the ticker GME, Tang said the weekend’s GME news remains the main contributor to the market’s gains.
Ethereum has seen a second week of inflows, the Coinshares report added, following enthusiasm over the approval of exchange-traded funds that invest directly in Ether in the United States.
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