Bitcoin Hits $46,794 as Altcoins and Stocks Rise to New Highs

Bitcoin’s price hit a new all-time high of $46,794 on the same day that Tesla revealed its $1.5 billion investment in BTC. Thus, the stock markets rose to new highs. 

Bitcoin is currently up 18.5%. Meanwhile, most altcoins and DeFi tokens have also risen to record double-digit gains for the day.

Some analysts speculate which big company will be the next to jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon. Meanwhile, Royal Bank of Canada Dominion Securities analyst Paul Steves believes Apple will be the next institutional player to join the trend. According to the analyst, if Apple were to launch a cryptocurrency exchange or buy Bitcoin, it could generate an estimated annual income of $40 billion.

Bitcoin’s bullish price action came at a critical time for BTC. It had seen a drop in overall sentiment in recent days as the price struggled to break above the $38,000 level.

Dogecoin also surged as the bulls managed to push the popular meme-based coin to a new all-time high of $0.0839. This action came shortly after Mark Cuban gave the go-ahead by calling altcoin the “best entertainment investment available” in the cryptocurrency market.

The price of Cardano reached a new high for several years to $0.72, an increase of 1,00% since February 1. After successfully implementing intelligent contracts on the test network and the potential for future integration, DeFi boosted investor prospects for the project.

Traditional markets rise on optimism around new stimulus payments

Investor optimism about the prospect of a new round of US government stimulus, including direct payments of $1,400 and a tax credit of $3,000 per child, helped boost traditional markets on Monday.

The S&P 500, Dow and NASDAQ all set new all-time highs, ending the day up 0.74%, 0.76% and 0.94% respectively. The past six trading days have marked the longest winning streak for the S&P 500 since August 2020, and the Dow has seen its best February start since 1931, rising 4.7% so far this month. 

Altcoins soared after Bitcoin’s breakout

Altcoins also benefited from the bullish momentum of BTC. Many posted double-digit gains, and prominent ones such as Terra (LUNA) and BitTorrent gained more than 100%.

Polkadot rose 20.23% to a new high of $23.27. Meanwhile, Elrond (EGLD) gained 40.7% in the last 24 hours to set a new all-time high at $191.73. Theta (THETA) was also up 25.55% to hit a new high of $2.86.

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization is currently $1.32 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 62.9%.