Bitcoin blows past $19,000 for the first time since FTX collapse

Bitcoin has surpassed $19,000 for the first time since FTX entered into a preliminary deal to sell to Binance on November 8.

The most popular cryptocurrency over the past day has risen in price by more than 8%. Traditional markets also edged higher after the announcement of a slowdown in US inflation in December.

Coinbase is up almost 9%, while Silvergate is up almost 13% and MicroStrategy is up 7.9%.

Ether was higher by 6.4% over the past 24 hours.