Bitcoin (BTC) achieved a historic milestone on March 11, reaching an all-time high of $71,415. This was a 2.62% increase in the 24 hours leading up to 08:05 am UTC. According to CoinMarketCap data, the world’s first cryptocurrency experienced a remarkable rally of over 10% in the past week and an impressive 47% in the past month. Interestingly, this new all-time high occurred just three days after Ether (ETH) crossed the $4,000 mark for the first time since December 2021.
Bitcoin’s surge to a new all-time high comes 36 days ahead of the highly anticipated Bitcoin halving event scheduled for April 20. During this event, mining rewards will be reduced from 6.25 BTC ($418,800) to 3.125 BTC ($209,400). Furthermore, Bitcoin recently achieved its highest-ever weekly close of $68,955 on March 10, shortly after surpassing its previous all-time high of $69,200 on March 5.
The bullish momentum of Bitcoin can be largely attributed to increased institutional interest, which has been generated by the introduction of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States. Since their launch, these ETFs have amassed a significant portion of the current Bitcoin supply, totaling 4.06% and surpassing $56.9 billion in total on-chain holdings, according to data from Dune. Based on this trend, it is projected that ETFs will absorb 8.65% of the BTC supply on an annual basis.
Last week alone, the spot Bitcoin ETFs accumulated a total of 33,000 BTC ($2.3 billion), including Grayscale’s GBTC fund, which experienced outflows of over 10,200 BTC, as reported by HODL15 Capital. Digital asset manager Bitwise predicts that more institutions, representing “trillions of dollars in assets,” will enter the spot Bitcoin ETF market by the end of June, as stated in their March 9 investment report.
Despite these new highs, Bitcoin whales, referring to individuals or entities holding significant amounts of BTC, continue to hold onto their assets. As of March 9, there were 2,107 unique addresses holding at least 1,000 BTC. However, this number is lower than the record of 2,489 addresses reached in February 2021 when Bitcoin was trading above $46,000.