Bitcoin at near three-week high; Ether jumps too

Bitcoin climbed as much as 5.6% to $43,337, its highest since March 3, and was last up 4.1%. Ether, the second largest digital coin, climbed as much as 5.4% to its highest since Feb. 17. Ether, the coin linked to Ethereum blockchain was last seen trading 3.6% higher at $3,008

The original cryptocurrency has added more than 26% since its intra-day low of $34,324 on Feb. 24 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Its recovery has mirrored gains for stocks, albeit it to a stronger degree.

Analysts said there was no specific news catalysts for the gains, citing tentative appetite for riskier assets that buoyed European stock indexes on Tuesday.

Still, crypto investment products and funds showed net outflows for a second straight week, digital asset manager CoinShares said on Monday.

The performance of other digital tokens also improved as Polygon, Litecoin, Stellar, Uniswap, Solana, Polkadot, Cardano surged over the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the global cryptocurrency market capitalisation jumped over $2 trillion mark, rising 3% in the last 24 hours, as per CoinGecko.

Cryptocurrencies have been beset by the same forces that have dented other risk assets this year, including US stocks. The recent volatility in cryptocurrencies has come amid a broader market selloff amid escalating geopolitical tensions due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis. The volatility has also been driven by investors recalibrating their portfolios to account for a more aggressive Fed.