On February 23, the price of bitcoin broke out of range and reached a new 2-year high of $54,360, continuing its 2024 rise.
The ongoing halving of supply, steady inflows into Bitcoin ETFs, and the general upbeat attitude among institutional and retail investors are the main drivers of BTC’s current price trend.
Let’s examine the causes of the recent surge in Bitcoin
Bitcoin has $570 million in new users.
99% of all inflows during the previous seven days were reported by BTC investment products, according to CoinShares’ statistics. With $569.5 million in inflows, the total value of assets under management globally for Bitcoin is now $67.5 billion.
Furthermore, according to data from Yahoo Finance, since their market debut on January 11, Bitcoin ETFs have had inflows totaling $5.5 billion. According to CoinShares, the cryptocurrency products have made a net total of $5.8 billion since they started trading.
The price of BTC is rising in tandem with the Bitcoin ETFs. On Monday, February 26, just after Wall Street started, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF IBIT surged 5% to hit a record high.
Institutional investors’ ongoing accumulation
The biggest corporate Bitcoin holder, MicroStrategy, contributed to the growing trend of optimistic institutional interest in Bitcoin. The company’s founder and chairman, Michael Saylor, revealed in a post on the social media site X on February 26 that MicroStrategy had purchased an extra 3,000 Bitcoin for a grand total of $155 million, with an average price of $51,813 between February 15 and February 25.
193,000 Bitcoin in all are currently held by the business intelligence company; they were purchased for $6.09 billion, or an average price of $31,544.
Furthermore, according to statistics from Farside Investors, the top ten Bitcoin ETFs in the US have collected a total of 5,500 BTC since its introduction on January 11.
Retail traders are expected to purchase more Bitcoin in expectation of a price increase as a result of institutional investors’ ongoing acquisition of the cryptocurrency.
Open interest in Bitcoin futures keeps rising.
The value of the Bitcoin futures market has increased, as seen by Coinglass data, which shows a 102% increase from mid-October to the current value of $23.43 billion. Notably, this is not too far from the $24 billion record high that Bitcoin achieved when it surpassed $69,000 at its all-time high in November 2021.
The rise in the BTC OI indicates that investor interest in the trailblazing cryptocurrency has resumed and confirms the present price volatility of Bitcoin. According to Coinglass statistics, short positions in Bitcoin worth $41.85 million were liquidated on February 26 due to the recent price spike, while long holdings totaling $9.7 million were liquidated. In the previous four hours alone, around $39 million worth of Bitcoin shorts were liquidated.
With more money flowing into spot Bitcoin ETFs and the supply halving event getting closer, investors anticipate that the recent wave of bullish price activity in Bitcoin will continue.
