Bitcoin on Monday surged to its new all-time high and crossed the $71,000 level, as the rise in the biggest cryptocurrency showed no signs of slowing down. The movement comes after Britain’s financial watchdog on Monday became the latest regulator to pave the way for digital asset trading products after saying it will now permit recognised investment exchanges to launch crypto-backed exchange-traded notes.
Bitcoin rose by as much as 4.8 per cent to a record $71,677 in European trading, bringing gains for the year so far to 70 per cent.
The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency has been boosted by a flood of cash into new spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds as well as hopes that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates.
Flows of capital into the 10 largest US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds slowed to a two-week low in the week to March 8, but still reached almost $2 billion, according to LSEG data.
Sumit Gupta, co-founder of CoinDCX, said, “Bitcoin has surged to a fresh record high, surpassing $71,000, marking a significant milestone in the crypto market. This notable uptrend is largely attributed to increased institutional interest, particularly in established assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The introduction of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has been a major drive, providing a secure and accessible avenue for a diverse range of investors to participate in the crypto space.”
He added that the rapid growth of BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF, which has exceeded $10 billion in assets under management in a relatively short period, underscores the growing institutional adoption and its role in driving the current market rally. Apart from this, the upcoming Bitcoin Halving and the anticipation around the approval of Ethereum ETF are also major factors for this positive market sentiment.
Parth Chaturvedi, investments lead at CoinSwitch Ventures, said, “The current crypto market rally has taken even the most optimistic crypto supporters by surprise, as the price is being driven by the massive institutional interest, in the form of strong inflows into the recently launched Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US. In just over two months of going live, Blackrock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC have already accumulated more than $12bn and $7.5bn in AUM. Even though most experts were predicting such flows for the entire year of 2024, the speed of accumulation and subsequent price rise were unexpected.”
What Should Traders Do?
For investors, tracking these flows should be a strong indicator of future price action, as increased demand along with the upcoming reduction in supply (due to the fourth halving) could result in upward price movement, he said.
Around the estimated halving in April, traders can also expect heightened volatility as BTC’s price is now above its all-time high. Investors will need to be very careful and do their research while engaging with leverage, as liquidations could be triggered due to volatile movements, Chaturvedi added.
The crypto market is already seeing a surge in volumes. However, retail participation is still nowhere close to the mania seen in 2021. We can expect interest in crypto as an asset class to become more mainstream.
On Ethereum, he said the second-largest crypto by market capitalisation, ETH is up by almost 15 per cent last week and is trading just above $4,000 level, with all-time highs, very much in sight now.
“The focus will continue shifting towards ETH, as the upcoming DenCun Upgrade is happening this week and will bring a lot of efficiency to its rollup-centric roadmap. Also, Blackrock and Fidelity have applied for spot ETH ETF approvals with a May 2024 deadline. If approved, we could see a similar rally in ETH prices, which could mimic the current surge in BTC,” Chaturvedi said.
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