After Bitcoin briefly dipped yesterday, thanks to an alarming consumer price inflation report in the U.S., the world’s oldest and largest cryptocurrency has come surging back to push past $51,000 in early morning trading.
At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is sitting at $51,341.12 according to CoinGecko data. It’s gained 2.5% in the past day and a whopping 20% since this time last week. That’s given BTC a $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time since December 2021 (after having hit the milestone for the first time ever in February of that year).
One of the factors helping Bitcoin along its ascent has been steady flow of good news from the spot Bitcoin ETFs that have now been trading for a full month. The new Bitcoin funds have now seen more than $3 billion worth of net flows—a milestone that doesn’t usually happen within the first month of trading for a new ETF.
For example, it took almost two years for the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) to see that much investor interest. The comparison was highlighted by Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Eric Balchunas yesterday.
Tuesday saw the largest single day for net inflows to date for the new ETFs. All the inbound interest has pushed BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) to 100,000 BTC.
U.S. BTC ETFs currently hold 704,339 BTC after seeing net inflows of 85,119 BTC since January 10.
Another massive day yesterday, the largest net inflow to date of 12,806 BTC – pushing BlackRock’s BTC exposure above 100,000 BTC.
Huge! pic.twitter.com/s1dQP41COd
— Vetle Lunde (@VetleLunde) February 14, 2024
Another key indicator of investor sentiment: The $22 billion worth of open interest in Bitcoin futures contracts, according to CoinGlass. The BTC open interest hasn’t been this high since November 2021, when Bitcoin hit its all-time high of $65,000.
“The open interest, or number of outstanding contracts, for calls that expire on March 29 with strike prices of $60,000, $65,000 and $75,000 has seen a significant increase,” noted options analyst account Cheddar Flow on Twitter.
In super simple terms: There’s growing speculation from investors that Bitcoin has the momentum it needs to set a new all-time high before April.
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Source: https://decrypt.co/217382/bitcoin-hits-1-trillion-market-cap-as-btc-blitzes-past-51k
