Bitcoin price rises above $30,000 for first time since June 2022

A sharp rise in bitcoin prices has pushed the cryptocurrency above $30,000 (£24,118) for the first time since 10 June last year, just before the Celsius crypto lending company froze withdrawals in the run-up to its collapse.

That attitude was typified by the US venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan, who in March bet $1m that the price of a single bitcoin would top $1m by June this year. His claim was that the US dollar would shortly experience hyperinflation, causing the dollar value of a bitcoin to soar.

But the recovery, after bitcoin prices hovered at $28,000 for almost a month before leaping the final $2,000 in a day, has also led to concern about market manipulation.

In June 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) refused permission to launch a bitcoin-linked exchange traded fund, which would allow investors to buy exposure to the cryptocurrency on the public stock markets, after concluding that it was impossible to prevent fraud and manipulation in the market from affecting the price.