Bitcoin briefly surpassed $25,000 for the first time since mid-June, as momentum continued from a cooler-than-expected US inflation data and progress toward Ethereum’s big upgrade.
The largest cryptocurrency rose as much as 2.2% on Sunday to $25,031, its highest level since June 13. It was trading around $24,750 as of 6 a.m. New York time, rising a fifth straight day in a streak fueled by US consumer-price index data that came in below expectations.
Crypto struggled through the first half of the year as the Federal Reserve hiked rates to combat stubbornly high inflation, with the prices of Bitcoin, Ether and other tokens falling by more than 50%. That comes in addition to positive developments for Ether, as the Ethereum blockchain’s Merge is now likely to happen around Sept. 15, network co-founder Vitalik Buterin said after a final test stage known as Goerli a few days ago.