Bitcoin’s (BTC) uptrend gathered pace on Saturday with prices nearly testing $11,500 for the first time in over a month.
The biggest cryptocurrency by market value rose to $11,484 at 03:10 UTC – the highest level since Sept. 2, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index.
Likely driving the move was optimism for the prospects for a U.S. stimulus package after the White House boosted its offer to Democrats on a pandemic relief package to the north of $1.8 trillion Friday.
A new round of stimulus would likely benefit BTC in at least three ways:
Government and central bank spending around the world in response to the coronavirus-induced slowdown, in the eyes of many, will. inevitably result in inflation, and therefore be positive for the cryptocurrency.
Given the current correlation between equities and BTC, and that some investors treating BTC like it's a tech stock, anything that boosts equities invariably boosts BTC.
Stimulus paychecks would give individual investors money to invest and some of those investments would likely be BTC.
Buyers stepped in around $10,500 earlier this week after payments company Square announced that it has put some 1% of its assets into bitcoin.
At press time, bitcoin is changing hands near $11,320, representing a 2% gain on the day.