Bitcoin turns positive for the first time in 2022, surges above $48,000

Crypto mania is back! In just five days, the price of bitcoin jumped by more than 9 percent from $44,000 to over $48,000 on Monday. The sudden jump also means the world’s most popular cryptocurrency has now erased all its losses for the year. Although, Bitcoin has since lost about $111 from its Monday high as of the time of writing.

So, what’s behind the surge considering the ongoing war in Ukraine? Analysts pointed out a number of factors behind bitcoin’s recent rally. First, last week Russia announced it will start accepting bitcoin for the purchase of oil and energy after The West imposed economic sanctions on the country in later February.

In a news conference on Thursday last week, the chair of Russia’s Duma committee on energy, Pavel Zavalny, said Russia was exploring alternative ways to receive payment for energy exports from friendly nations and could allow them to pay in cryptocurrency or in local currencies, reports said.

The second reason is that Goldman Sachs became the first major U.S. bank to trade crypto over the counter.

Bitcoin has been on a rollercoaster ride since the beginning of this year. On January 24, Bitcoin crashed to $33,000, losing more than 50% of its value in just 2 months. The world’s most popular cryptocurrency lost more than half of its value since its all-time high price of $68,990.90 on November 9, 2021.

Bitcoin was not alone. The carnage also spread to other altcoins. Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano suffered heavy losses as $1 trillion was wiped off the crypto market. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, suffered heavy losses dived nearly 11.71% in January.