Bitcoin rose for the second day in a row on hopes of strong demand for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) earlier in the week, nearing record highs.
The most liquid cryptocurrency rose to $64,279, surpassing $64,000 for the first time since November 2021, before falling to $63,622 as of 9:20 a.m. Singapore.
At the heart of this frenzy appears to be insatiable demand for the largest crypto token in the US-listed Bitcoin ETF, which began trading on January 11th. Bitcoin has surged about 186% in the past 12 months.
advertisement
Continue reading below
Hayden Hughes, co-founder of social trading platform Alpha Impact, said: “Given the weekend's low liquidity, the market remains buoyant on expectations that ETF inflows will continue tonight and prices will continue to rise. “We are moving forward,” he said.
Since its debut, the US Bitcoin ETF, offered by a range of funds including BlackRock and Fidelity Investments, has seen net inflows of $7.35 billion invested.
Traders are betting on strong demand for the ETF and concerns that it will miss out on Bitcoin's expected halving later this year, with the price dropping below the roughly 60,000 yen it reached during the coronavirus pandemic. I'm betting it will soon surpass the $9,000 record. After the halving, i.e. when mining rewards are halved, the growth in the supply of coins will likely slow down, further putting pressure on demand.
“Bitcoin may take some time to cross the psychological threshold of its all-time high, but given the halving and positive sentiment, we should think it is only a matter of time before it crosses that level,” Hughes said. he said.
Other smaller tokens such as Ether and Solana also rose 0.15% and 1.82%, respectively, on Monday.
© 2024 Bloomberg
