TheCable

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, on Monday, crossed $71,000 for the first time in two years.

The price of the digital asset has been steadily rising since the approval of the spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S.

The token had crossed $70,000 for the first time last week.

According to CoinMarketCap, price-tracking website for cryptoassets, the price of bitcoin stands at $71,195 on Monday at 10:00 GMT+1.

Similarly, the price of other cryptocurrencies also climbed higher, with Ethereum (ETH) price jumping past $4,000 again after reaching the same level in 2021.

The ETH price, at the time of this report, rose to as high as $4,015 backed by an 80 percent rise in trading volume in the last 24 hours — indicating a massive interest among traders.

Other top altcoins such as XRP, Solana (SOL), Cardona (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Shiba Inu (SHIB), also saw a sudden 3 percent to 8 percent leap.

According to CoinMarketCap, the global cryptocurrency market cap rose to $2.69 trillion, after recording an increase of over $137.7 billion in the last 24 hours.

The surge in the bitcoin price comes amid a probe of the operations of Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange firm, in Nigeria.

On March 6, 2024, Binance Nigeria announced plans to cease all naira transactions, from March 8, 2024.

Also, in a notice dated March 4, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it has developed new guidelines for licensing, registration and screening of digital and virtual assets service providers (VASPs).

The commission had said the new measures would ensure that “criminals are not registered as operators” in the capital market.

The development followed the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on December 22, 2023, to lift the ban on crypto transactions in the country, issuing operational guidelines on VASPs to all banks and other financial institutions (OFIs).