Bitcoin rose above $64,000 on Friday, rebounding from a decline below $60,000, as the cryptocurrency continues to face volatility ahead of the upcoming halving event. Bitcoin hit $64,739.04 at around 6:15 a.m. ET, according to CoinDesk data, rising by more than 5% from the previous 24 hours. Other cryptocurrencies also jumped, including Ether, which rose by more than 3%, while Solana rose about 10%.
The volatility comes ahead of the upcoming halving, which is scheduled to take place this week. This is when the rewards for Bitcoin miners are cut in half. Halvings occur every four years and are written into Bitcoin's code. The result is a slowdown in the supply of Bitcoin in the market.
Cryptocurrency prices were affected by the unprecedented Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel last weekend. On Saturday, Bitcoin was hovering around the $70,000 level.
But there are other headwinds for Bitcoin at the moment and geopolitical tensions have not been the only factor impacting cryptocurrency markets since last week. “We can see similar bearish sentiment across miner behavior, trading volumes, ETF flows and news from US inflation data,” analysts said in a research note on Friday.
