By
Temitope Olatunji
April 26th, 2024
Bitcoin’s recent surge is driven by robust demand from new US spot Bitcoin ETFs with BlackRock Inc and Fidelity Investments garnering over $7 billion in net inflows since their launch on January 11.
Bitcoin is approaching its all-time high, sparking anticipation among crypto enthusiasts for a historic milestone. However, in terms of market value, the world’s largest has already achieved a new record high. According to CoinGecko data, Bitcoin market capitalization has surged to $1.35 trillion, surpassing the previous peak of $1.28 trillion recorded in November 2021.
During that month, Bitcoin reached a peak price of $68,991.85, registering an all-time high during that bull run. Despite the increase in Bitcoin’s supply since then, its market capitalization has reached new heights during the current rally.
However, as of press time, Bitcoin (BTC) is witnessing partial retracement trading at $66,746 and a market cap of $1.311 billion. Recent gains in Bitcoin come on the backdrop of strong demand from new US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. ETFs from BlackRock Inc. and Fidelity Investments have seen over $7 billion in net inflows since their debut on January 11. Speaking to CNBC, Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of crypto exchange Nexo said:
“With the birth of these nine new ETFs the big moves now tend to take place during the normal trading week rather than the weekends. What we’re seeing today … might well be a rerun of early last week when bitcoin surged $10,000 in the space of a couple of days. We’re in that sort of environment when a day or two of sideways consolidation can precede explosive price action thanks to the voracious demand of these new spot ETFs.”
Before the close of the trading session on Monday, BlackRock‘s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) had exceeded $2.1 billion in trading volume. Despite being only fifth in terms of assets under management (AUM), IBIT emerged as the seventh most-traded ETF of the day. Surprisingly, it surpassed the trading volume of the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), the largest US-listed gold ETF.
Bitcoin to Overtake Silver, New All-Time High Coming?
Bitcoin (BTC) is swiftly evolving into one of the world’s largest assets, having recently exceeded the $1.3 trillion market capitalization mark. It is now approaching the market cap of silver, which stands at $1.4 trillion. Earlier in this bullish trend, Bitcoin surpassed the market cap of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook).
Bitcoin is showing superior performance compared to the tech-focused Nasdaq 100 Index (NDX), as highlighted by Caleb Franzen, founder of Cubic Analytics, in a recent report. Franzen emphasized Bitcoin’s breakout above a critical level linking the highs of the first quarter of 2021 and the last quarter of 2021, describing it as “extremely encouraging”.
In a separate market report on Monday, Markus Thielen, founder of 10xResearch, predicted that Bitcoin’s price action would be “astonishing” this week. Thielen anticipates new all-time highs for Bitcoin as demand expands beyond the US and inflows into ETFs remain robust.
