Bitcoin Tops $80,000 for First Time Since January

Bitcoin surpassed $80,000 on Monday for the first time since late January, reaching a high of $80,610 during early Asian trading hours before settling around $79,700 later in the session.

The cryptocurrency climbed as much as 1.9 percent intraday, extending a monthly gain of about 14 percent in April after trading below $65,000 at several points earlier in the year. Ethereum rose nearly 3 percent to approximately $2,367, while XRP gained 2 percent to $1.41 and Solana advanced to $85. The global cryptocurrency market capitalization increased 1.6 percent to $2.65 trillion.

The rally triggered over $450 million in futures liquidations across the market in the past 24 hours, with shorts accounting for more than $300 million as bearish positions were squeezed. Traders noted two large spikes in Bitcoin buy volume on Binance, totaling over $2 billion, signaling aggressive buying near the breakout level.

U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded net inflows of roughly $2.7 billion over the past three weeks, pushing total assets under management past $100 billion. April inflows reached $2.44 billion, led by BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust with a 70 percent market share. Friday...