Bitcoin BTC
+5.74%
It topped $60,000 on Wednesday, a high not seen since November 2021.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap is up more than 6% in the past 24 hours, hitting $60,000 at 8:22 a.m. ET, according to The Block’s pricing page. Meanwhile, the GM 30 index representing the top 30 cryptocurrencies rose 2.8% to 125.37 over the past 24 hours.
The price action resulted in the liquidation of more than $100 million in Bitcoin positions, with nearly $72 million held short, according to Coinglass data. Bitcoin’s value has risen more than 42% since early February, and the largest cryptocurrency now has a dominance of 50.3%, compared to Bitcoin’s 17.2%. ether.
BlackRock’s IBIT records highest daily inflows
According to BitMEX ResearchBlackrock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) recorded its highest daily inflows of $520 million on Tuesday, surpassing Monday’s total inflows of $111.8 million.
According to BitMEX Research data, IBIT’s inflows yesterday were 5% higher than the previous record of $493.1 million set on February 13, bringing the total net inflows of all US spot Bitcoin ETFs registered on Monday to 5% combined. It exceeded 19.8 million dollars.
BitMex Research added that total net inflows into all spot Bitcoin ETFs hit a multi-week high yesterday. Total net inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs since launch on January 11th now total $6.7 billion.
Bitcoin miners are accumulating
Miners have increased their accumulation ahead of the halving event expected in April, according to a K33 market report on Tuesday. “Over the past three months, publicly listed Bitcoin miners have retained approximately 29% of total Bitcoin rewards, a significant increase from the January-November average of 2.5%,” K33 analysts said.
The report added that the increased accumulation rate among Bitcoin miners is likely to come from two factors: rising prices and some miners holding off on selling to make up for lower rewards after the halving.
According to K33, Bitcoin tends to consolidate after entering a halving. “Over the previous three halving cycles, Bitcoin’s average pre-halving 50-day return was just 30%. Interestingly, every halving was followed by a modest 50-day performance. Bitcoin averaged a 50-day return. “The post-halving return is 3%,” the report added.
As of now, the halving is expected to occur on April 20th, which means we will enter the 50-day pre-halving period in a few days.
Growing passion for retail
Another supporting factor that could fuel Bitcoin’s price movement are signs of increased retail activity in the cryptocurrency market.
“According to February 15 data from Coinbase, trading volume hit a low in the third quarter of 2023, but retail participation has increased significantly since then. This increase coincides with growing interest from the retail community, especially in areas such as gaming. , NFTs and social platforms have received more attention over the past month,” a Ryze Labs analyst said in an email to The Block.
According to the data above, Coinbase is seeing an increase in retail activity. Image: Coinbase.
Analysts backed up their opinion with data from Coinbase, which showed an increase in both trading volume and retail activity on the exchange from the third quarter of 2023 to the fourth quarter of 2023. This increase in retail activity reversed a multi-year downward trend.
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