Bitcoin price (BTC) experienced a brief surge above $64,000 on February 28th before pulling back to around the $62,000 range. This surge in BTC price coincided with record volumes in spot Bitcoin ETFs and an increase in crypto liquidations.
As of 3:35 pm UTC, the price of Bitcoin was at $62,669, showing a 5% increase over the past 24 hours. The recent rally has led to a 93% spike in BTC’s daily trading volume, reaching $90.2 billion. Bitcoin’s market capitalization has also risen to $1.23 billion, solidifying its position as the most valuable cryptocurrency according to CoinMarketCap.
The surge in Bitcoin’s price is largely attributed to the increased inflows into new spot Bitcoin ETFs. US spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen record daily inflows, totaling $673 million on February 28th as BTC surpassed $64,000. These figures surpassed the previous high of $655.2 million set on January 11th when these ETFs first started trading.
Notably, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, attracted around $6.12 million, its highest inflow to date. Fidelity’s ETF, FBTC, came in second with approximately $245.2 million, followed by ARK Invest 21Shares’ ARKB with $23.8 million. However, Grayscale’s ETF, GBTC, experienced outflows totaling $216.4 million on February 28th.
Data from BitMEX research reveals that the nine new Bitcoin ETFs have accumulated net inflows of around $7.4 billion since their launch, marking the highest inflows since their inception.
Bitcoin’s price volatility has resulted in significant liquidations of leveraged positions across the crypto market. In the early Asian trading hours on February 29th, when the price hovered around $63,500, short positions worth $435 million were liquidated, compared to $364 million in long liquidations.
As the New York trading session began with prices around $62,500, a total of $683 million, consisting of $341 million in longs and $341 million in shorts, were liquidated within 24 hours. Approximately $143 million of Bitcoin shorts were liquidated, while $102 million long positions were liquidated in the same period.
Despite the volatility, investors expect Bitcoin’s bullish price action to continue as inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs increase and the supply halving event approaches.
According to independent analyst Ali, Bitcoin’s price faces “literally no resistance” ahead, as shown by IntoTheBlock’s In/Out of the Money Around Price (IOMAP) chart. The chart indicates a significant support zone between $54,300 and $56,200, where nearly 500,000 BTC were previously bought by approximately 903,540 addresses.
The IOMAP chart also reveals that around 89.75% of addresses are currently in the money at the current price, suggesting minimal resistance to upward price movements.
On the downside, short-term traders should be cautious as the TD Sequential indicator has flashed a sell signal on the four-hour chart, which could lead to price corrections between 1.50% and 4.20%.
It’s important to note that this article does not provide investment advice or recommendations, and readers should conduct their own research before making any investment decisions.