Bitcoin Surpasses $69,000 Mark, Achieving New All-Time High Since November 2021

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, has been experiencing a busy year, and it’s only March. This digital currency reached a new all-time high, the first since November 2021, surpassing $69,000 early on Tuesday morning. The recent increase in demand follows the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S and the anticipated halving of bitcoin in late April.

Data from CoinMarketCap shows that Bitcoin’s price has risen by more than 60% for the month and about 205% for the year. Likewise, the total market capitalization across all cryptocurrencies increased by 18% to $2.55 trillion, out of which bitcoin represents 52%.

Bitcoin’s new high came before its forthcoming halving event scheduled for mid-April, a phenomenon that occurs roughly every four years. The bitcoin halving, often called “the halvening,” refers to a periodic decrease in the number of bitcoins that miners earn per mined block, effectively slicing the reward by half. This measure aims to control bitcoin’s supply over time. The process will terminate once there are 21 million bitcoins in circulation, a total supply cap. However, this final halving is not projected to happen for another century or so.

Historically, bitcoin halvings ignite an increase in interest for the asset since demand generally surpasses supply, leading to a price increase in the months following the event.

Additionally, the recent surge in bitcoin’s price can also be correlated with the approval of 11 spot bitcoin ETFs by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January. These approvals set in motion new institutional investors as well as retail investors who work via financial advisors, leading to significant amounts of institutional funding being deployed.

Interestingly, the volume of bitcoins purchased by ETFs has recently exceeded the number of new bitcoins mined, according to data from HODL 15 Capital, as reported by Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Asset Management.

The firms issuing these ETFs have observed demand exceeding their initial expectations of a few billion. As per Blockworks data, across all spot bitcoin ETF products, the total market cap is $53.74 billion. The trading volume across the last 24 hours amounted to $1.81 billion.