By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 26th, 2024
The massive Bitcoin price rally in 2024 is majorly due to the continuous inflows into the Bitcoin ETFs launched in January.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) is inching closer to hitting a new all-time high with its price shooting past a staggering $65,000. At press time, Bitcoin is trading 4.99% up at $64,950 with a market cap of $1.2777 trillion.
As per the CoinGlass data, Bitcoin has recorded a staggering $13.64 million worth of liquidation in the last 24 hours, as of press time, of which over $11 million is alone from short liquidations. Amidst the recent price movement, data from Coinglass revealed that the daily open interest for bitcoin futures on centralized exchanges soared to an unprecedented level of $30.30 billion on Monday, as of press time.
Open interest serves as a key metric, representing the total value of all active bitcoin futures contracts across exchanges, providing insights into heightened market activity and trader sentiment
The driving force behind this surge is the insatiable demand for Bitcoin through the recently launched US-listed Bitcoin ETFs, which commenced trading on January 11. Since their debut, these US Bitcoin ETFs have attracted net inflows totaling $7.35 billion.
Investors are anticipating Bitcoin (BTC) price to surpass its previous peak of nearly $69,000, achieved in the 2021 bull run. This optimism stems from the robust demand for ETFs and the fear of missing out (FOMO) ahead of the upcoming Bitcoin halving, anticipated in April. Following the halving event, which reduces the mining reward by half, the coin’s supply growth will decrease, further intensifying demand pressures.
Bitcoin (BTC) ETF Demand Remains High
Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have witnessed a notable surge in assets under management, notably with BlackRock’s IBIT hitting $10 billion last week. The combined volume for spot Bitcoin ETFs stood at $73.91 billion as of March 1, marking a substantial increase from $29.19 billion on February 1.
BlackRock Inc’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity Investments’ Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) have attracted 79% of the total inflows among the “Newborn Nine” Bitcoin funds. Following this trend, four of the remaining seven funds have reduced their fees to compete with these leaders, as revealed by a Bloomberg analysis of data from the funds’ websites.
Valkyrie Investments significantly decreased its fee from 0.49% to 0.25%, while Franklin Templeton now offers the lowest fee in the sector at 0.19% after cutting its management charge by 10 basis points. Meanwhile, Bitwise has opted not to adjust its fees.
The surge in Bitcoin’s price this year, surpassing $65,000, is due to retail investors eager to capitalize on the introduction of new ETFs, fearing they might miss out on the opportunity.
