Bitcoin clears $10,000 for first time in 2 weeks

Market Insider

• Bitcoin is up more than 5% Thursday, above $10,000 for the first time in just over two weeks.
• Other cryptocurrencies are also up as crypto recovers from its early-February slump.
• You can track the price in real-time here>>

Bitcoin passed $10,000 a coin Thursday afternoon, making for the first time in just over two weeks its trading above the psychological hurdle.

The flagship cryptocurrency, which still accounts for 35% of the total value of all coins, is up 5.7% Thursday.

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Bitcoin slumped at the start of February, but has been gaining steam again over the last week or so. It remains well off its all-time highs of over $19,000 reached just before Christmas.

It's hard to pin an exact reason on bitcoin's recent rally. The price dip and then recovery has matched rather tightly the recent drama in the US stock markets.

The London Block Exchange, a startup building a UK-based crypto exchange, writes in its Thursday market update: "Tomorrow is the first day of the Lunar New Year and some families are replacing their red envelopes of cash for bitcoin gifts.

"In each of the past three years, the crypto markets have experienced corrections three weeks before this important day."

Meanwhile, bitcoin continues to be a topic of discussion for many in the financial world.

Charlie Munger, the 94-year-old vice chairman of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, called bitcoin "noxious poison" on Wednesday, while Llew Claasen, the executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation, forecast that the cryptocurrency will go to $40,000.

Oscar Williams-Grut contributed to this report from London