By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 23rd, 2024
Bitcoin has surpassed $34,000, setting a new record high as FOMO from institutional investors at Coinbase propels the crypto.
Bitcoin has surpassed $34,000 for the first time ever. The top cryptocurrency shot up by 14% in the past 24 hours, marking the Bitcoin Network’s 12 years in style. The king of cryptos enjoyed its best year yet in 2020, gaining 300% to just stop shy of the $30,000 resistance level, up from $5,150 in March. This momentum has continued into the New Year. On January 2, Bitcoin finally breached $30,000 for the first time ever. This was a landmark event for the crypto as it had been flirting with the resistance level for days.
The momentum saw the crypto shoot up rapidly, gaining $3,000 in just a few hours. It set a new all-time high at $33,136 just hours later before a slight correction took it back to $30,000. The price started to fluctuate at this level for a few hours before the eventual breakout that led to a new all-time high.
In the 24 hours since it retraced to $30,000, Bitcoin has gained 16.2% to set a new record at $34,567. It has since then retraced slightly to trade at $34,189 at press time.
The crypto’s market cap now stands at $629.2 billion, making it more valuable than all except nine publicly traded companies. Significantly, BTC is now more valuable than Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A), the giant led by the anti-Bitcoin billionaire Warren Buffett.
The recent surge has defied predictions by many analysts that the crypto would see a price correction. These analysts were especially emboldened by the slight correction from $33,000 to $30,000. They further pointed to the thin order books as yet another reason they believed the price would drop.
The spike led to over $100 million in losses for traders who shorted Bitcoin. On BitMEX alone, traders lost $10 million, as the BitMEX liquidation bot revealed.
Liquidated short on XBTUSD: Buy 10,000,000 @ 30864 🏅🏆💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯 ~ I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
— REKT (@BXRekt) January 2, 2021
Bitcoin Turns 12
It’s also important to mention that 12 years ago, on January 3, 2009, Genesis Block where the first 50 Bitcoins were generated was mined.
While bears on Binance Futures, BitMEX and other global platforms were betting against Bitcoin, investors on Coinbase were putting all their weight behind the crypto. Coinbase has been attracting institutional investors in 2020 in their hoards. These investors have been instrumental in Bitcoin’s stellar performance, gobbling up as much BTC as they could lay their hands on.
Ki-Young Ju, the founder of analysis platform CryptoQuant, pointed out recently that BTC would retrace if Coinbase bulls didn’t come through soon. He tweeted:
“We haven’t had significant Coinbase outflows since $23k, tokens transferred are decreasing, and the fund flow ratio for all exchanges is increasing. Still possible that institutional investors would join anytime soon, but we might face a correction if it continues like this.”
The bulls did come through, giving Bitcoin the push it needed. As data from CoinMarketCap showed, investors on Coinbase were accumulating Bitcoin at a premium just before the crypto took off to record heights. At one point, there was a $350 gap between the market price for BTC on Binance and Coinbase, for instance.