Bitcoin (BTC) had a buoyant trading session on Wednesday, surging 3.3% against the US dollar to ring the midnight bell at $43,670.

The benchmark cryptocurrency remained on the front foot this morning, with the BTC/USDT pair changing hands for $43,900 at the time of writing.

Though not quite a year-to-date record, bitcoin is in a strong position as the year winds to a close.

Bitcoin bulls remain hopeful of a final Santa rally pump above $45,000, though it is unclear if there is gas left in the tank.

Bitcoin traders have been galvanised by a suite of exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications from BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale and others, but regulatory approvals have likely been kicked forward into the new year.

Year-to-date bitcoin gains have topped 165% – Source: tradingview.com

Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency on the market, added 1.1% against the US dollar on Wednesday and another 0.7% this morning, bringing its spot price to $2.218 at the time of writing.

Elsewhere in the blue-chip altcoin space, Solana (SOL) rocketed up 15% overnight to hit a new year-to-date high of $86.

Layer-2 blockchain SOL’s market value has surged nearly ninefold in 2023, though it is still significantly lower than its all-time high after collapsing more than 95% following the FTX implosion.

With SOL on a rip, the token has supplanted Ripple (XRP) as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency on the market with a capitalisation of $36.8 billion against XRP’s $33.3 billion.

Avalanche (AVAX) added 120% overnight, while BNB, XRP, Cardano (ADA) and Dogecoin (DOGE) kept their gains to the low single digits.

Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation surged 2% overnight to $1.64 trillion, with bitcoin dominance nearing 54%.