Not actually what a bitcoin looks like.
Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photo: Getty Images

For obvious reasons, $69,000 is a holy number in the world of bitcoin. In November 2021, during the last crypto bubble, the digital currency surged to an all-time high $68,990.90 — painfully close to the sex-joke number Elon Musk loves so much. But it crashed in price over the following year as a succession of frauds was revealed, effectively demolishing the crypto market as we knew it. But, surprisingly, bitcoin is back. On Tuesday, more than two years after the last all-time high, the bitcoin nerds got another chance to laugh. At about 10 a.m. in New York, bitcoin surged past its all-time high and for a brief moment attained the nice level of $69,000. (This being bitcoin, almost immediately it then fell by about $5,000.)

Bitcoin is, of course, having a big moment. Its 2024 price surge is lubricated by the dozen exchange-traded funds, managed by the likes of BlackRock and Fidelity, that are making it easier for both institutions and regular investors to get in on the action. There will also be a technical change to the coming supply of new bitcoins, called the halving — theoretically, it’s a mechanism that will make bitcoins more valuable in the future (which remains to be seen).

But there’s something else going on too. Gold also hit an all-time high on Tuesday, rising past $2,100 an ounce. So did Japan’s biggest stock index — for the first time since the George H.W. Bush administration. A few days ago, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 breached new respective records. Nvidia recently surpassed oil giant Saudi Aramco as the world’s third-largest company and looks as if it’s on track to top Apple. With all these taken together, bitcoin’s sudden and spectacular rise may be more of a symptom of this “buy anything” rally.

The most obvious explanation for all this is that more people expect interest rates to fall at some point this year. On Tuesday, a measure of manufacturing orders and employment fell for February — an economic data point showing that the economy may be cooling and, by extension, that the Federal Reserve may lower borrowing costs. If central banks are going to loosen their monetary policies, that naturally frees up some money for, say, gambling on crypto prices.

But also: Maybe bitcoin hit $69,000 because someone thought it would be funny. Understanding the meaning behind any particular rise or fall of bitcoin’s price can feel like untangling the thorniest of koans. Perhaps there is no meaning in the meaning. Or meaning in the lack of meaning? It doesn’t have to mean anything.