This week in markets: Bitcoin breaks $20,000 as altcoins, crypto stocks surge

Bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies extended last week's rally heading into the weekend. 

After flirting with the psychological breakthrough level for several days, bitcoin broke past $20,000 this week. The coin's price on Saturday dipped to around $20,800, up 22% compared to last week's price of $16,900.

Bitcoin hasn't seen this level since the November market crash of last year, according to the crypto data tracker TradingView. 

Cryptocurrency market capitalizations rose as a whole this week, including Bitcoin's 4.33% increase, ether's 5.7% rise and Solana's soar of over 26%. Other coins with prosperous market cap gains include Polkadot (11.8%), Polygon (6.3%) and Avalanche (5.4%). 

Crypto stocks and structured products

Crypto stocks also did well as bitcoin neared $19,000 — even as S&P 500 stocks remained relatively steady. 

Coinbase shares ($COIN) surged 41% and the bitcoin miner Marathon Digital saw its stock rise 80%, most likely due to the rise in bitcoin's price. Traditional markets rose about 2% during that time. 

For structured products, GBTC surged 28% and ETHE rose 17%.

In addition, recent data found that digital asset-focused funds started 2023 out with a bang: Ondo Finance launched three tokenized U.S. Treasuries and bonds on Jan. 10, and two Abu Dhabi-based venture firms partnered to create a billion-dollar web3 investment fund on Jan. 11, The Block previously reported.