Key Points
Bitcoin recently soared past the $60,000 mark for the first time in two years and three months, following a 6% increase in the 24 hours leading up to 1:00 pm UTC.
The cryptocurrency hit $60,001 on Binance at 1:11 pm UTC.
According to CoinMarketCap data, Bitcoin has seen a weekly increase of over 13% and a monthly surge of 37%.
The last time Bitcoin was valued above $60,000 was on Nov. 12, 2021, before it began a downward trend, dropping by over 67% to a low of $19,297 in April 2022.
Market Anticipation for Halving Event
The substantial increase in Bitcoin’s value can be largely attributed to market anticipation of the upcoming halving event.
This event typically triggers increased buying activity, as explained by Bryan Legend, investor and CEO of Hectic Labs.
Legend noted that investors expect a reduction in supply to drive up prices, contributing to a new bull market with a refreshed bullish sentiment.
However, pseudonymous crypto analyst Rekt Capital suggested that a “pre-halving retracement” could still occur.
Rekt Capital further shared that, based on historical market data, the upcoming Bitcoin halving is not priced into the market, as Bitcoin’s major movements usually happen after halvings.
Bitcoin’s bullish trend comes shortly after the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States reached a record daily trading volume of $2.4 billion on Feb. 26, as reported by Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg.
The nine spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded combined trading volumes exceeding $2 billion for two consecutive days on Feb. 28.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) recorded over 100,000 individual trades on Feb. 27, a significant increase from its average of 30,000 to 60,000 daily trades.
About 75% of new Bitcoin investments reportedly came from spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States, as per a Feb. 14 report by on-chain data analytics firm CryptoQuant.
