Bitcoin tops $67,000 as it nears 2021 all-time high

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Bitcoin jumped to start the week, edging even closer to its all-time high after the rally took a breather over the weekend.

The flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by 7% at $67,379.86, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose to as much as $67,567.98, its highest level since November 2021, when it reached its all-time high. Ether advanced 4%, trading near January 2022 highs at $3,607.49.

Both coins are coming off their best week in almost a year — bitcoin gained about 21% and ether 16% — but paused their run over the weekend as the market digested two days of steep outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) that were offset by inflows into other "newborn" bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

"With the birth of these nine new ETFs the big moves now tend to take place during the normal trading week rather than the weekends," said Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of crypto exchange Nexo.

"What we're seeing today … might well be a rerun of early last week when bitcoin surged $10,000 in the space of a couple of days," he added. "We're in that sort of environment when a day or two of sideways consolidation can precede explosive price action thanks to the voracious demand of these new spot ETFs."

At $67,000, bitcoin sits about 3% off its intraday record of $68,982.20.

Bitcoin lifted other crypto tokens, especially meme coins. Dogecoin surged 13%, while Shiba Inu coin rocketed 39%. Analysts point to them as evidence that retail investors, who have been absent for much of the recent crypto rally, are starting to return to the crypto market. Last week, meme tokens' weekly trade volume surged to their highest level since late 2021, according to crypto data provider Kaiko.

Some crypto equities rode