Bitcoin breaks through $40,000

It's the first time this year: Bitcoin climbed to more than US$40,000 on the night of December 3 to 4 and managed to gain 4.9 percent in the past 24 hours. The altcoin market, especially Ethereum, follows the bull run and has grown in direct proportion. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $41.693 and ETH at $2.242.

The last time BTC's price was above $40,000 was in April 2022. The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies now stands at US$1.54 trillion and is up nearly 4 percent on the day.

In the past 24 hours, nearly 70,000 investors have liquidated their money, with most expecting the market to go lower again. Total liquidations total nearly $200 million, according to data from Coinglass. It remains to be seen whether the price rally in the crypto market will last.