Bitcoin has increased by 50% this year, with the majority of the increase occurring in the previous few weeks as inflows into U.S.-listed bitcoin ETFs skyrocketed.
On Tuesday, it stood at $68,500 in Asian hours, having touched a session high of $68,828, a hair’s breadth away from its all-time high of $68,999.99 recorded in November 2021.
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds were legalized in the United States earlier this year. Their introduction paved the path for new significant investors and reignited passion and energy similar to the run.
“It’s crypto mania 4.0, and I think if we continue to see fairly low bond and rate volatility, it could keep going. There’s definitely something of an irrational behaviour creeping into the market.”
Kyle Rodda, Senior Markets Analyst at Capital.com
Net flows into the ten largest U.S. spot bitcoin funds reached $2.17 billion in the week ending March 1, with more than half of that moving into BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust.
The rally has coincided with record tumbling on stock indexes ranging from Japan’s Nikkei to the S&P 500, the tech-heavy Nasdaq, and volatility gauges in equities and foreign exchange all falling.
Smaller rival ether has ridden the wave of speculation that it, too, may eventually see exchange-traded funds driving inflows, rising more than 50% this year to $3,649.
