- Bitcoin rallied beyond $47,000 on Monday, as technical buying and a decline in risk aversion kicked in.
- Altcoins like avalanche and solana experienced double digit gains over the past 24 hours.
- A pickup in sentiment, along with more institutions embracing crypto, are helping drive gains.
Bitcoin and ethereum rallied to three-month highs on Monday, along the crypto market as a whole, as risk appetite returns to a market buoyed by institutional support and positive sentiment.
Bitcoin was up 6.36% over the past 24 hours at $47,520, according to CoinMarketCap, while ethereum's native token ether was up 6.96% at $3,372. These gains leave the two leading cryptocurrencies up about 16% over the past week.
This is the first time bitcoin has crossed the $47,000 mark since early January. The market has come under fairly sustained pressure since then, as red-hot inflation raised the chances of a string of interest-rates rises and Russia's war in Ukraine quashed investor appetite for riskier assets.
"The Crypto Fear and Greed index has reached 60 which is classified as Greed – the last time it reached this level Bitcoin was around $60,000," GlobalBlock Analyst Marcus Sotiriou wrote on Monday.
The Crypto Fear and Greed index measures sentiment from social media, volatility, momentum and also surveys two to three thousand people weekly. As noted by Sotiriou, this is the first time that the index has been at 60 or above since November, when bitcoin reached its all-time high of $64,000, and would suggest a degree of investor bullishness.
Noelle Acheson, Head of Market Insight at Genesis Trading, told Insider a shift in sentiment and institutional support for crypto may go some way towards explaining for the recent jump in prices.
"We're definitely seeing a positive shift in sentiment. In part, it's to do with the accelerating rhythm of strong institutional support for the market – so far in March, we've had Goldman Sachs, Bridgewater, Cowen, Virtu, Blackrock and others make statements about investing in crypto and/or setting up crypto projects," she told Insider.
Acheson also believes that confidence in the growing awareness of bitcoin's potential as a seizure-resistant store of value, given the geopolitical headlines of late and the crisis in Ukraine, may also be contributing to the increase.
Smaller altcoins followed suit, with a number of the more widely traded coins gaining at least 10% over the past 24 hours.
Cardano was up 9.81% over the past day to trade at $1.24, while solana jumped 10.87%, trading at $111.22, meanwhile avalanche rose 7.83% to trade at $92.07 at the time of writing.
Cardano hasn't traded above $1.23 since February and is currently up over 37.48% over the past week, while solana tells a similar story having last traded above $110 in February and gained over 24% in the past week alone.