On Thursday, Bitcoin extended its recent gains for the ninth day in a row, surging over $18,000. It was the longest streak of gains for the cryptocurrency since 2020.

In January the cryptocurrency gained over 10%, marking an 8% gain in just the last week. According to the CoinMarketCap website, at 11 AM GMT on Thursday, the token was trading at $18,187, for a 4% gain in the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin has benefited from cooling inflation and investor beliefs that “the Federal Reserve will slow the pace of interest-rate hikes,” Bloomberg reported. The rally has been welcome news to investors following last year’s slump.

In 2022, Bitcoin saw its value fall almost 65%, as the entire cryptocurrency sector underwent a series of bankruptcies and collapses which undermined investor confidence, and sent valuations tumbling. Most recently the whole sector was rocked by the implosion of FTX, which at the time of its collapse, was the world’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Michael Purves, the founder of Tallbacken Capital Advisors, said, “Risk assets have been rallying, I think, for the reason that the terminal rate is coming slowly but surely into the foreground and positioning has been bearish and transitioning, which means bullish near-term price action.”

Despite some analysts claiming Bitcoin could see as much as a 70% decline this year as the fallout from the FTX implosion spreads through the other companies it was financially intertwined with, many other analysts argue that once the storm in the cryptocurrency sector clears, large players, including institutions, will jump back into cryptocurrencies, and begin a new cycle of price increases.