Bitcoin builds on rally as banking crisis attracts buyers

Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) extended its rally to a nine-month high in Monday morning trading as the tumult surrounding the banking sector spurred speculation that the Federal Reserve would slow the pace of interest-rate increases. The token climbed 3.6% to $28.29K at 8:36 a.m. ET, helping drive up the global crypto market value by 1.1% to $1.18T, according to CoinMarketCap data . Its upswing comes after soaring 26% last week, marking the biggest weekly gain since April 2019. A slew of altcoins, though, slipped during the session, including ethereum ( ETH-USD ), which edged down 0.3% to $1.78K. "The recent macro reset (banking crisis) has accelerated the recovery path," Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani wrote in a note, adding that "the fundamental shift is that crypto is now trading as a risk-off, uncorrelated asset, and the last 2 years prior to FTX' demise, was more an aberration as a risk-on asset." Crypto-exposed stocks, especially those affiliated with the bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) mining space, gapped up during the premarket session, despite uncertainty prevailing across the broader stock market ahead of the Fed's rate decision on Wednesday. Marathon Digital ( MARA ) gained 4.2% , Riot Platforms ( RIOT ) perked up 5.9% , MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) +4.9% and Coinbase Global ( COIN ) +3.4% . See why SA contributor The Digital Trend last week justified bitcoin as a Strong Buy .