"I consider Bitcoin to be a high-beta risk asset," said Ross Mayfield, a Baird investment strategy analyst. "When risk appetite rises, it rises dramatically." And when risk appetite drops, it drops hard. It's not exactly connected, and that's an overly simplistic reading, but it's not a volatility hedge."

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According to technical analysis, Bitcoin has crossed the upper bound of a so-called pennant technical pattern and scaled its 20-day moving average.

While this means that greater gains are possible, other technical indicators point to the $53,000 to $55,000 range as a potential test of the rally's resilience.

Woori Technology Investment Co., Remixpoint Inc., and Ceres Inc., all cryptocurrency-related stocks in Asia, have benefited from Bitcoin's recent rise.

BTC and ETH approaching a critical point!

So far in 2021, the digital coin has gained 76 percent, putting it on track for the third year of increases.

Despite the SEC's XRP lawsuit, Ripple has had its "strongest year ever," claims the CEO

According to CEO Brad Garlinghouse, despite the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) litigation over XRP, Ripple has had its "best year ever."

On Wednesday, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse discussed his company's accomplishments and cryptocurrency regulation in a series of tweets. He claimed that, despite the XRP lawsuit, Ripple had its "best year ever."

Ripple continues its bullish rally, while other assets stay in the green

A complaint was brought against him, Ripple Labs, and co-founder Chris Larsen by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a year ago. XRP should have been registered as a security, according to the securities watchdog.

While claiming that the SEC's action against XRP is "an attack on crypto in the US, not just Ripple," Garlinghouse explained:

The year 2021 will be remembered as a turning point for cryptocurrency. Acceptance of the chance to bring billions of individuals into the global financial community has never been more apparent. It's amazing to see how much less 'maximalism' there is now and how many more builders are entering the field.

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The CEO then discussed Ripple's accomplishments over the past year, including launching new On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) corridors and its central bank digital currency (CBDC) solution. He opined, "All of this growth came from outside the US."

Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, "has taken an aggressively anti-crypto posture, and companies are already migrating outside the US," according to Garlinghouse. "Today, the SEC won't address queries concerning the legal status of ETH, much less anything else," he claimed.

Bitcoin's hash power is still high, up 163 % in five months, and Foundry USA is the top mining pool

After achieving a lifetime high, the Bitcoin network's hash power has remained above the 180 exahash per second (EH/s) zone.

The processing capacity of the Bitcoin blockchain has been kept above 180 EH/s by miners dedicating SHA256 hash power to it. BTC's hashrate is sitting just above the 186 EH/s zone at the time of writing.

The newest hashrate highs come after BTC reached a lifetime peak of 194.95 EH/s on December 8, 2021. Since then, data suggest that the hashrate has been hovering around that level, with 30-day numbers showing a few instances when it approached the December 8 high.

BTC's hashrate is currently performing significantly better than it was on June 28, 2021, when processing power fell to 69 EH/s. The network dropped 63.87 % of its hash power due to a government crackdown on Chinese mining activities in China, dropping from 191 EH/s on May 9 to 69 EH/s at the end of June.

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After five months, the hashrate has recovered and has recovered the processing power that was lost during that period. BTC was substantially cheaper at the end of June, trading for $34K per unit.

Do you think the Bitcoin hash rate can rise beyond this level?