Bitcoin hits record in Japan, Argentina and Philippines’ local currency

Bitcoin (BTC) notched all-time highs in several countries across Asia and South America following a 7% surge on the day — pushing the cryptocurrency ever closer to its United States dollar peak.

Bitcoin prices hit an intraday and six-week high of $71,650 on May 21 following a gain of more than 7% over the past 24 hours.

The asset has returned to within 3.4% of its March 14 all-time high in USD terms of $73,738, according to CoinGecko.

However, the big move pushed Bitcoin to new peaks against several other fiat currencies.

According to CoinMarketCap, in Japan, BTC hit an all-time high of 11.2 million yen in early trading on May 21.

It is the first time that the asset has been worth more than 11 million JPY. The local currency has weakened against the U.S. dollar in recent months losing 10% against the greenback since the beginning of the year.

Bitcoin prices are also at a peak in Argentina when the asset tapped 63.8 million Argentine pesos (ARS) on May 21, slightly higher than peaks made in mid-March.

The South American nation has been battling inflation, currently at a whopping 290%, and currency devaluation over the past couple of years.

Similarly, one Bitcoin was briefly worth a record 4.18 million pesos (PHP) in the Philippines on May 21, beating mid-March highs.

Other nations where BTC prices have equaled or come very close to their mid-March peak prices include Britain, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Israel, Norway, India, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey, as noted by industry observer Thomas Fahrer on X.

#Bitcoin is back to ATH all over the world pic.twitter.com/BDoxNPlkVb

— Thomas | heyapollo.com (@thomas_fahrer) May 21, 2024

Related: Bitcoin price hits $70K as spot and BTC ETF buying surges

Hours earlier, crypto analyst Willy Woo observed that a month’s worth of Bitcoin short position buildup was just liquidated.

“One more layer to go in order to short-squeeze past all-time highs,” he added.

Meanwhile, Coinglass reports that over the past 24 hours, 79,010 traders were liquidated with the total crypto liquidations at $345 million — 78.5% of them were short positions.

In a market update earlier this week, 10x Research’s head of research, Markus Thielen, predicted a “breakthrough above $67,500 could potentially lead to new all-time highs.”

BTC is currently trading at $70,945, just $2,500 shy of a new all-time high in U.S. dollars.

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