Bitcoin Breaches $10K for First Time Since February

Bitcoin BTC$73,501.56 rallied Thursday on high volumes, trading above $10,000 for the first time since Feb. 24 late in the day.

The bellwether cryptocurrency surged nearly 7% in 24 hours to $10,071 as of 23:47 UTC (7:47 p.m. ET), with most of those gains made in the last 12 hours. The price was flitting on both sides of the $10,000 threshold as of press time.

The rally means investors who purchased bitcoin at the beginning of the year would now be up almost 40% on their investment. The rise comes after a massive crypto market selloff in March, as the economic fallout from COVID-19 battered both traditional and new, alternative financial markets. As of press time, the S&P 500 stock index is still down 10% year-to-date.

Larger-than-usual bitcoin buying volumes on spot exchanges like Coinbase rapidly pushed up the price for 1 BTC starting around 13:00 UTC (9 a.m. ET) Thursday.

Increased discussion around the bitcoin halving, an event expected May 11 which reduces supply generated by miners, has made the world's oldest cryptocurrency top of mind for many investors. This includes hedge fund legend Paul Tudor Jones II, who announced Thursday his $38 billion Tudor Investment Corp. is buying bitcoin futures products to gain exposure to the crypto market as a hedge against expected inflation.