Bitcoin Surges in Japan, Argentina And Philippines

Bitcoin price hits an intraday and six-week high of $71,650 on May 21, following a gain of more than 7% over the past 24 hours.

Following a 7% daily advance, Bitcoin reached all-time highs in several Asian and South American countries, bringing the cryptocurrency closer to its all-time high against the U.S. dollar.

On May 21, Bitcoin prices reached a six-week intraday high of $71,650, a gain of over 7% over the previous twenty-four hours.

According to CoinGecko, the asset has retraced to within 3.4% of its all-time peak in U.S. dollars, which was $73,738 on March 14. As a result, Bitcoin reached new peaks compared to several other fiat currencies.

CoinMarketCap reports that at the opening of trading on May 21, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of 11.2 million yen in Japan. This marks the asset's initial valuation of over 11 million yen. In recent months, the local currency has experienced a depreciation against the U.S. dollar, with a 10% decline observed since January.

In Argentina, Bitcoin reached its highest point in price on May 21, when it reached 63.8 million Argentine pesos, a marginal increase from its March apex.

Recently, the currency of South American countries has been devalued, and inflation has skyrocketed to an all-time high of 290%. On May 21, 1 Bitcoin momentarily peaked in value at 4.18 million pesos in the Philippines, surpassing levels seen in mid-March.

According to industry analyst Thomas Fahrer on X, additional countries where Bitcoin prices have reached or approached their mid-March peaks include Turkey, Britain, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Israel, Norway, India, South Korea, and Taiwan.

#Bitcoin is back to ATH all over the world ???? pic.twitter.com/BDoxNPlkVb

— Thomas | heyapollo.com (@thomas_fahrer) May 21, 2024

Willy Woo, a cryptocurrency analyst, noted hours earlier that a short position accumulation of one month's worth of Bitcoin had just been liquidated, he continued:

Coinglass reported that 79,010 traders were liquidated in the preceding twenty-four hours, representing $345 million in total crypto liquidations, of which 78.5% were short positions.

In a market update, Markus Thielen, head of Research at 10x Research, predicted earlier this week that a “breakthrough above $67,500 could potentially lead to new all-time highs.”. As at the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $70,945, $2,500 less than its all-time high in U.S. dollars.