Bitcoin has surged past the $60,000 mark for the first time in more than two years, with a 6% increase in the 24-hour period leading up to 1:00 pm UTC. At 1:11 pm, it reached $60,001 on Binance. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the world’s first cryptocurrency has seen a 13% increase on the weekly chart and a 37% increase over the past month. The last time Bitcoin traded above $60,000 was on November 12, 2021, before experiencing a significant drop to a low of $19,297 in April 2022.
The recent surge in Bitcoin’s price can be attributed to the market anticipation of the upcoming halving event. Bryan Legend, investor and CEO of Hectic Labs, believes that this event historically leads to increased buying activity. However, pseudonymous crypto analyst Rekt Capital suggests that a “pre-halving retracement” may still be possible. Based on historical market data, Rekt Capital argues that the market has not fully priced in the impact of the upcoming halving, as previous halvings have resulted in major movements in Bitcoin’s price after the event, rather than before.
The bullish momentum of Bitcoin comes shortly after spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States reached a record high of $2.4 billion in daily trading volume on February 26. This was reported by Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg. Furthermore, the nine new spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded combined trading volumes of over $2 billion for the second consecutive day on February 28. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF alone saw over 100,000 individual trades on February 27, a significant increase from the average daily trades of 30,000 to 60,000.
According to a report by on-chain data analytics firm CryptoQuant, approximately 75% of new Bitcoin investments in the United States are coming from spot Bitcoin ETFs. This indicates a growing interest in Bitcoin as an investment asset.