The cryptocurrency market has moved above $1 trillion for the first time since June 13th.
A 2.6% increase in the last 24 hours has seen it reach $1.02tr at the time of writing (7am UK).
Bitcoin and Ethereum hit $22,430 and $1,486 respectively before falling back slightly, their highest levels in more than a month.
Ether is 40% up in a week after gaining 7% in the last day, while Bitcoin is up a more modest 10% and 1% respectively.
It will come as a relief to long-term investors who have witnessed a prolonged nosedive following the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. The bear market was worsened by the bankruptcies of Three Arrows Capital and crypto lender Celsius Networks.
The tremors from these earthquakes saw the overall market fall as low as $800 billion, having topped $3 trillion last year. However after several days of gains, there is now hope that the market has ‘bottomed’.
Bitcoin’s trading volumes rose by 15% in the last day, exceeding $31.6 billion, while the bullish sentiment was helped by a rally in stock markets in Europe and Asia.
Both Bitcoin and Ether are down more than 50% this year.
Meanwhile lawyers for Celsius, speaking at its bankruptcy hearing, have highlighted that its 1.7 million registered users in more than 100 countries gave up title to the crypto deposited into Earn and Borrow accounts.
Its T&Cs highlight that Celsius is free to “use, sell, pledge, and rehypothecate those coins” as it wishes.
The company says it wants to HODL – keep hold of customers’ coins – to stay afloat then sell them when the market has fully turned around, returning more to users than they would get if it liquidated now.
It also revealed plans to mine 15,000 Bitcoin next year through a subsidiary to help with the turnaround, but that claim was met with scepticism on Twitter.