Bitcoin Surges Past $81K as Asian Markets Rise and NEAR Leads Crypto Gains
Bitcoin traded above $81,000 on Monday as Asian markets rose in response to stronger risk sentiment across global markets. U.S. officials described trade discussions with China as productive ahead of a planned meeting between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping.
The cryptocurrency's price climbed less than 1% over the past 24 hours, building on gains from after U.S. regulators cleared a path for some onchain trading of tokenized stocks.
Market participants attributed Bitcoin's weekend move to short covering, according to BTSE Chief Operating Officer Jeff Mei. He stated that the SEC's move on tokenized stocks and a short squeeze contributed to the increase in price.
NEAR was one of the strongest major cryptocurrencies, rising about 23% to trade just above $4. The surge followed increasing activity through NEAR Intents, a service that allows users to swap assets across different blockchains without manually transferring funds between networks.