A new high record was recorded by bitcoin, which reached $69,202, surpassing the all-time high of November 2021 at $68,999.99. It then traded lower and last settled at $68,440. Its rise is being fueled by investors pouring money into US exchange-traded spot crypto products and the prospect that global interest rates may fall.
In an ironic twist, Bitcoin owes much of its resurgence to the regulator long considered hostile to crypto: the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC approved spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in early January after suffering a legal defeat last year in its bid to ban them. The move has widened Bitcoin’s accessibility to the mass market, helping the crypto sector turn the page after a bear market in 2022 and a series of subsequent bankruptcies, including the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange.
“Bitcoin’s all-time high marks a turning point for crypto,” Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder of crypto platform Anchorage Digital, told Reuters. Traditional institutions once sat on the sidelines – today, they are here in full force as the primary drivers of the crypto market’s upward trajectory.”
Investors have shown tremendous attraction to crypto, high-cap tech stocks, and investment-grade corporate bonds.
To halving
Analysts say bitcoin also benefited ahead of April’s so-called halving event – a process that takes place every four years in which the rate at which tokens are released is halved, along with the rewards given to miners.
The bitcoin supply is limited to 21 million, of which 19 million have already been mined.
Despite its recent popularity, for many investors, bitcoin is simply too volatile and doesn’t have enough real-world applications to be anything other than a speculative asset.
However, in addition to the cocktail of money flowing into ETFs, the prospect of a limited supply of bitcoins and a possible reduction in US interest rates, some companies are adding the cryptocurrency to their corporate coffers.
Bitcoin has soared nearly 160% since October, 44% of which came in February alone.
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