Bitcoin rises to highest level in two weeks

Bitcoin rose to about $51,000 and touched the highest level in more than two weeks, buoyed by wider positive sentiment in financial markets.

The largest cryptocurrency has advanced some 4% over the past two days and at one point reached $51,524 on Friday in Asian trading. Ether, the second-largest token, was near $4,100. 

Risk ardour has improved in global markets, evidenced by a record-high close for the S&P 500 on Thursday. It remains to be seen whether a receding tide of central bank liquidity will bring bigger challenges for cryptocurrency demand.

“I view bitcoin as a high-Beta risk asset,” said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategy analyst at Baird. “When risk appetite is up, it’s up big. And when risk appetite is down, it can be down big. It’s not perfectly correlated, that’s definitely too simple of a read, but it’s certainly not a volatility hedge.”