Bitcoin briefly topped $45,000 on New Year’s Day, something it hasn’t seen since April 2022, reminiscent of the roller coaster ride of January that year, when the price of the world’s leading cryptocurrency surpassed the threshold three times in a matter of days. Interleaved with dips as low as $36,000.
Bitcoin was last recorded at $45,000 on April 5, 2022, and fell to $15,742 on November 9. CoinGecko. On Lunar New Year’s Day, market capitalization exceeded $836 billion, and trading volume hit $22 billion.
As of this writing, BTC is up over 171% compared to this time last year, up over 13% over the past month, and up over 5% in a single day. Bitcoin started 2023 at less than $17,000 per coin.
This year, the long-standing anticipation of the SEC’s approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF appears to have driven much of the rally. However, many deadlines have come and gone without any formal action being taken on the number of pending applications to offer spot ETFs. Could 2024 be the year that finally happens? And will the price of Bitcoin soar or plummet?
Big numbers like $45,000 have no particular meaning except that they represent a psychological barrier for investors. Reaching one increases trust, which can encourage more transactions and create a flywheel effect. At least this is what Bitcoin holders hope.
In the big picture, this means Bitcoin is getting close to surpassing the highs it had last year when it started the year at just $50,000. BTC held above $40,000 for most of the month, but fell off a cliff after the collapse of algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD, sparking a wave of liquidations and bankruptcies.
As the world’s largest and oldest cryptocurrency continues its upward trend, its total value by market capitalization continues to rise. According to CompaniesMarketCap, Bitcoin recently surpassed Elon Musk’s Tesla in terms of market capitalization at $855 billion, and has since surpassed $750 billion. It also upended Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which has a market capitalization of $774 billion, and Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), which has a market capitalization of $815 billion.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.