In unpredictable trading on Friday, Bitcoin momentarily surged to a new all-time high as crypto fever persisted among investors. In response to rising demand for new crypto goods sold on the U.S. spot exchange and falling predictions of global interest rates, the leading cryptocurrency broke beyond the $70,000 barrier.
Its recent trading price was $68,317.72, down from a high of $70,105. The market has received additional support from an upgrade to the ethereum blockchain platform and a bitcoin "halving" event in April, which slows the flow of bitcoin minting. Additionally, billions of dollars have flowed into ETFs in the past few weeks.
The speculative character of these assets, however, persists, according to others. After soaring to new heights on Tuesday, bitcoin took a nosedive, dropping over 10% to drop below $60,000 once again.
Ethereum co-founder Antoni Trenchev warned that "navigating old highs is notoriously tricky and the bitcoin dam doesn't tend to burst at the first time of asking" when asked about Ethereum's potential price increase. "Volatility defines bitcoin bull markets, and 2024 will be littered with sudden and gut-wrenching 10%-20% plunges."
The market reached a turning point in late January when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved eleven spot bitcoin ETFs. This came after an 18-month crypto winter characterized by a series of high-profile company scandals and bankruptcies.
The latest leg of this rise may be sustained by long-term investments from even institutional investors who previously avoided crypto because of its unpredictable and dramatic price swings, according to analysts.
According to LSEG data, the net flows into the top ten U.S. bitcoin funds hit $2.2 billion in the week ending March 1. Over $2 billion of that total went into BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT.O) The recent excitement around bitcoin has extended to other digital tokens as well. One such token is ether, whose market value has increased by over 60% since the beginning of the year, placing it second only to bitcoin.
Final price for Ether was $3,939.84, up 1.62%. Coinbase (COIN.O) shares were 8.2% higher at the end of the trading day on Friday, while crypto miners Riot Platforms (RIOT.O) and Marathon Digital (MARA.O) saw gains of 5.1% and 9.6%, respectively, in their stock prices.
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