By
Svetlana Soroka
April 29th, 2024
According to the Ripple CEO, Bitcoin ETF market and the network’s upcoming halving will spike the crypto market by 100% this year.
The chief executive officer (CEO) of blockchain company Ripple believes that the total market capitalization of the entire crypto market will hit $5 trillion before 2024 ends. According to Brad Garlinghouse, this target is possible because of several factors potentially affecting the Bitcoin market.
Ripple CEO Bullish on Crypto Market Cap Doubling Past $5 Trillion This Year
Speaking to CNBC, Garlinghouse mentioned the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) market in the United States as one of the factors. According to the Ripple CEO, the upcoming Bitcoin halving is another.
Explaining why he believes in this possibility, Garlinghouse highlighted his experience in the crypto industry, and the trends that have come and gone over time. On the ETFs, he said the trades are now “driving for the first time real institutional money” in the Bitcoin market. For a while, the crypto industry has been somewhat distant from the traditional market, especially regarding financial investments, because traditional players were apprehensive about loose regulations. A regulated instrument like spot Bitcoin ETFs trading on traditional exchanges seems to have considerably solved this problem while bringing expansion to the market.
Combining the ETF market and the Bitcoin halving, which reduces the supply of Bitcoin in the market, Garlinghouse said:
“You’re seeing that [the ETFs drive] demand, and at the same time demand is increasing, supply is decreasing. That doesn’t take an economics major to tell you what happens when supply contracts and demands expands.”
Based on these factors, the Ripple CEO is bullish on the chance of the entire crypto market capitalization rising considerably. He said:
“The overall market cap of the crypto industry … is easily predicted to double by the end of this year… [as it’s] impacted by all of these macro factors.”
With the crypto market cap at $2.6 trillion, Garlinghouse is predicting a new $5.2 trillion total market cap by the end of this year.
Bitcoin ETFs to Pump Crypto Market
The Ripple CEO’s point about the spot Bitcoin ETFs seems valid, considering numbers pulled in by the issuers. While some active ETF providers are struggling compared to others, the IBIT ETF from BlackRock Inc has performed impressively. Since the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted approval to multiple issuers in January, IBIT has received a total of $17.24 billion, according to BlockWorks’ ETF tracker. Fidelity Investments’ FBTC has $9.9 billion in assets under management (AUM), while the ARKB ETF from Ark/21 Shares has $2.16 billion in AUM.
Although Grayscale’s GBTC is the largest, with $24.33 billion in AUM, the ETF was converted from a private Bitcoin fund initially launched in 2013. At the point of conversion, GBTC already had more than $28 billion in AUM, according to YCharts data, as of the launch. Unfortunately, the ETF has seen heavy outflows since then. On March 18, GBTC saw $642.5 million in net outflows. According to BitMEX data as of April 4, the ETF has recorded net outflows nearly every day since the conversion.