The cryptocurrency extended its gains after another big jump on Tuesday, topping $30,000 for the first time since June.

Bitcoin is still the market’s runaway success story of the year. The cryptocurrency topped $30,000 on Tuesday for the first time since June.

Bitcoin has gained more than 80 percent in price this year, far outperforming many other assets. The Nasdaq 100, an index of the biggest tech stocks, has gained roughly 20 percent in that period — a strong showing but a far cry from Bitcoin’s resurgence.

The latest Bitcoin rally appears to be partly tied to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy, which has included nine interest rate increases over the past year. Crypto asset prices sank a year ago as the central bank began to raise rates, but investors are now betting that the Fed will soon pause its rate increases, even though Fed officials have been suggesting the opposite, setting off a big rebound.

Bitcoin’s biggest gains also coincide with the turmoil in the banking sector. The cryptocurrency is up more than 45 percent since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last month. Industry advocates point to the recent rally as a sign that investors are converting some of their cash into digital currencies, though there is little evidence of that happening.

Read more: NY Times

• 2022’s crypto collapse wiped out roughly $2 trillion worth of crypto assets.
• As the sector enters a period of stability, good actors must come together to deliver a digital assets industry that promotes the safe, sound and compliant development of blockchain-powered tech.

Consumers, businesses and investors around the world lost nearly $2 trillion in the digital assets market last year. By any measure, the systemic failures in the digital assets market in 2022 were eye-watering — some argue they are still reverberating in 2023, with correlations in the evolving banking crisis.

Many of 2022’s crypto losses were triggered by a daisy chain of events that began with the collapse of the stable-in-name-only Terra-Luna token, and were punctuated by the collapse of FTX.

The remaining viable players in the crypto industry must take a hard look in the mirror to regain market trust, particularly among regulators and policymakers. Regulators and policymakers, meanwhile, should take heed in not overreacting to crypto risks but responsibly harness the technology.

With jurisdictions adopting policies across the spectrum, de-banking and de-risking are emerging as major threats to the industry. These trends have unintended consequences and, over time, may produce more harm to the countries (and markets) that adopt these policies than the knee-jerk corrections to last year’s financial misdeeds.

Countries that lead in the development of the third generation of the internet (what some are calling Web3), and the novel industries and business models it will produce (including in the core of finance and banking), will prevail in the digital currency race.

Read more: WEForum