Bitcoin was trading at $84,256 at around 06:35 a.m. ET, up around 3.8%, according to CoinMetrics. Earlier in the day, the cryptocurrency rose as high as $85,229, its highest level since late January.<\/p>\n
Investors are assessing whether the “crypto winter” \u2014 a depressed period of digital asset prices \u2014 which began after bitcoin hit an all-time high of over $126,000 in October 2025, is over.<\/p>\n
“I do think it’s over, it’s crypto spring, the crocuses are blooming,” Matt Hougan, CIO at Bitwise, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday.<\/p>\n
“I think this will actually be the strongest and longest-running bull market in crypto’s history.”<\/p>\n
While bitcoin is still down this year, it has risen more than 7% in the last 5 days and nearly 35% over the last 3 months. It is still well off its record high.<\/p>\n
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Bitcoin price year-to-date.<\/p>\n
Hougan said even though the market was down for a while, the “fundamentals went up” in cryptocurrency, pointing to more transactions across blockchains and involvement from major firms like BlackRock.<\/p>\n
“So I think we had this unusual situation where you had a cyclical decline in prices even as you had a secular improvement in fundamentals. And now I suspect that prices are going to catch up toward the end of the year,” Hougan said. <\/p>\n
“I don’t think if I came back next year, we’d still be below those all-time highs.”<\/p>\n
Analysts at BTIG said in a note on Sunday that, as long as the $75,000 level of bitcoin holds, “bulls can target a push through 82k on the way to” $90,000.<\/p>\n
Crypto-related stocks, including Strategy<\/a> and Coinbase<\/a>, were higher in U.S. premarket trading on Monday. <\/p>\n AI rotation?<\/p>\n The rally comes even as the U.S. Senate last week blocked the Clarity Act<\/a> from advancing. It would have set up a framework for crypto in the U.S. and divided industry oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).<\/p>\n