Bitcoin surges past US$63,000 amid rising ETF demand and expectation of a halving event.
Bitcoin gained for the second day in a row, closing in on its all-time high, boosted by anticipation of strong demand from exchange-traded funds at the start of the week. The most liquid cryptocurrency surged to US$64,279, its first advance above US$64,000 since November 2021, before falling to US$63,622.
At the center of this craze is seemingly unquenchable demand for the biggest cryptocurrency token from the US-listed Bitcoin ETFs, which began trading on January 11. Bitcoin has increased by around 186% during the last year. “Given the low liquidity over the weekend, markets are moving north in anticipation that tonight’s ETF inflows will continue and prices will continue to rally,” said Hayden Hughes, co-founder of social trading platform Alpha Impact.
Since the launch of the US Bitcoin ETFs, sponsored by a group of funds including BlackRock Inc. and Fidelity Investments, a net inflow of US$7.35 billion has occurred. Traders believe the price to shortly surpass the record of over US$69,000 set during the Covid epidemic, owing to the ETFs’ strong demand and worry about losing out ahead of Bitcoin’s halving later this year. After halving when the mining incentive is cut in half the coin’s supply growth may slow, contributing to the demand crunch.
“Crossing the psychological threshold of Bitcoin’s previous all-time high may take time, but it should only be considered a matter of time until we cross that level given the halving and positive sentiment,” Mr. Hughes said. Other smaller tokens, such as Ether and Solana, rose by 0.15% and 1.82%, respectively, on Monday.
