Bitcoin Back Over $40K as More Countries Embrace Crypto

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Bitcoin (BTC) popped back above $40,000 on Thursday, climbing alongside U.S. stocks as fresh signs emerged of accumulation by investors and greater adoption by nations from Africa to Central and South America.

As of press time the largest cryptocurrency by market value was up 3.2% in the past 24 hours, changing hands at $40,206.

• “Bitcoin remains in a fairly tight range despite a slew of positive news on the asset such as potential sovereign adoption in Africa, Cuba's allowing licensed exchanges and Mexico's gradual move towards greater adoption generally,” said Jason Deane, market analyst at Quantum Economics.

• The Central African Republic has recently become the second nation in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.

• The Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) announced that it will issue licenses for virtual asset service providers. The license will be available to individuals or organizations both Cuban and foreign.

• The Panamanian Legislative Assembly passed a bill regulating crypto. “This will help Panama become a hub of innovation and technology in Latin America," Congressman Gabriel Silva said.

• Brazil also passed a law on Wednesday to regulate cryptocurrencies. “The bill aims at creating a regulatory framework for the country’s crypto industry,” wrote Business Today.

• “Bitcoin continues to look bullish from an on-chain perspective as whale holdings have risen to its highest since September last year,” wrote Marcus Sotiriou. analyst at the U.K.-based digital-asset broker GlobalBlock. “When whale [large] holdings increased dramatically last September, it led to a significant increase in price in November.”

• “Retail is buying bitcoins,” wrote the blockchain analysis firm IntoTheBlock. “The balance held by addresses with less than 10 BTC has soared to 2.08 million BTC.”

• “It's important to note the growth in the balance of addresses with 0.001-0.01 BTC and 0.01-0.1 BTC, increasing by at least 2% in 30 days,” wrote IntoTheBlock.

• “Technically bitcoin looks bullish in the short term as it has once again confirmed bullish divergence on the RSI indicator on the daily time frame,” wrote Sotitiou. He also says retail bitcoin traders are in an accumulation phase.

• Ether (ETH) was up 4% in the past 24 hours, trading at $2,968.

• U.S. stocks are up Thursday. The S&P 500 was up 2.6% and the Nasdaq was up 3.2%.