By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 26th, 2024
Bitcoin (BTC) price rallied to this year’s high of about $35k during the early Asian market amid speculation of spot ETF approval in the United States leading to high short positions being liquidated.
After trying to rally beyond $31.8k twice in the past sixteen months without success, Bitcoin (BTC) price broke out and reached as high as $35k in the past 24 hours. The Uptober bullish momentum coupled with the high demand from institutional investors, as seen from the spot Bitcoin ETF frenzy, helped Bitcoin price spike about 10 percent in the past 24 hours. At the time of writing, it is trading at around $33.9k. As a result, the majority of the Bitcoin short traders were liquidated leading to a sudden short squeeze.
The bullish Bitcoin outlook in the past few days has been backed by speculation of BlackRock Inc’s (NYSE: BLK) iShares Bitcoin ETF being approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Moreover, BlackRock has been acquiring Bitcoins through MicroStrategy Inc (NASDAQ: MSTR) in the past.
Additionally, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust is now listed on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), which recently announced the acquisition of Securrency to further enhance its digital asset agenda, with the ticker $IBTC. The listing of iShares Bitcoin Trust on DTCC has been viewed as imminent approval by the US SEC on spot Bitcoin ETFs in the next six months.
The iShares Bitcoin Trust has been listed on the DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, which clears NASDAQ trades). And the ticker will be $IBTC. Again all part of the process of bringing ETF to market.. h/t @martypartymusic pic.twitter.com/8PQP3h2yW0
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 23, 2023
Bitcoin Winter Is Over, More Gains Ahead
Bitcoin price has been trapped in a prolonged bear market since the end of 2021 after reaching an ATH of about $69k. Unlike the prior times that Bitcoin price tried to rally beyond $31.8k, this time the altcoin market has rallied in tandem, indicating more cash inflow into the crypto industry. Market analysts expect the Bitcoin bullish outlook to continue in the coming weeks supported by the options that have a higher call rate.
“At its peak around $32,500, almost $20 million of BTC will need to be purchased by options dealers for every 1 percent move up to stay delta neutral. The positioning implies that market makers need to buy back increasing amounts of the delta as spot moves higher, which should add to the explosiveness of any move in the short term,” Alex Thorn, research head at digital asset investment firm Galaxy, noted.
From a technical standpoint, Bitcoin price will have a higher bullish affinity if it records a weekly close of above $31k. In this regard, Bitcoin price could rally between 30 percent to 40 percent in subsequent weeks towards $40k and above. Moreover, the Bitcoin halving, which has been identified as to trigger of the macro bull run, is less than 183 days from the projected April 25.
