BITCOIN Bitcoin surpasses $57,000 benchmark,

The price of bitcoin was last higher by 4% at $56,851.59, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier it rose to $57,445.14, its highest level since December 2021.

The move came after crypto investing and software firm MicroStrategy disclosed a purchase of about 3,000 bitcoins for $155 million on Monday.

MicroStrategy, based in Virginia, is currently the largest publicly traded owner of bitcoin. The company reported a holding of about 190,000 of the cryptocurrency tokens earlier this month, which would be worth over $10.5 billion today.