Editor’s Note: As of press time, the price of Bitcoin surged to $50,000 and back down to $48,000, as of 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 13th.
In the last couple of days, a Bitcoin rally has resulted in a substantial further yield on recent solid gains. The Bitcoin price is currently $48,180 and still on an overall upward track.
There is much speculation that Bitcoin is about to hit the $50k landmark. There is also a general sentiment that, with halving due in April, we could be looking at prices of at least $53,000, with a few experts even anticipating a rise to over $55k.
Here at Digital Wager Wire, we ask, what has propelled Bitcoin recently?
Bitcoin’s Current Climate
In our previous articles, we covered how the current climate of the new Bitcoin ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) has increased confidence exponentially during recent months since the Grayscale Lawsuit that took on the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) and won. This opened the door for the more traditional financial institutions to dip their toes into the cryptocurrency world for the first time, with an expected flooding of the markets that is forecast to run into trillions of dollars.
The bull traders within the industry are back, encouraged by the narrative that has formed around the industry with the rise of the ETF. On Friday, February 9th (the most recent workday trading), the inflow was at its third highest since the EFT era began on the 11th of January, a month earlier. The final inflow accounted for over $400 million for the day, which meant an accumulative total of $2.2 billion on the month that James Seyffart reported below.
This is the 3rd biggest inflow day for the group since their launch. First day was +$655 mln and 1/17 was +$453. Still a big day. pic.twitter.com/peUszfnrfZ
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) February 9, 2024
Is Confidence Growing Amongst the Financial Giants?
It seems that the global giants of the financial world are very happy with their first footsteps into the cryptocurrency world. Even though ETFs are new to the cryptocurrency age, they are not new to investors, and over the last 30 years, there have been over 5000 of them launched in society.
Remarkably, the two biggest performers ever were recorded last week, and they were the ETFs belonging to Blackrock and Fidelity who both acquired over $3 billion of assets during their first trading month of 2024. Intelligence data supplied to the industry from Bloomberg detailed how the $3 billion was acquired by BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) during those first seventeen trading days of January.
The Bloomberg analyst, Eric Balchunas declared that Blackrock and Fidelity are in “a league of their own”.
Here’s a look at the Top 25 ETFs by assets after 1 month on the market (out of 5,535 total launches in 30yrs). $IBIT and $FBTC in league of own w/ over $3b each and they still have two days to go. $ARKB and $BITB also made list. pic.twitter.com/Yyi1nxukUk
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 8, 2024
Balchunas did acknowledge that the mass outflow from the Greyscale ETF had been a contributing factor in the flow performance of the spot ETF Bitcoins, stating that, “the real unseen force here is competition. 10 ETFs launching on same day w/ some stud issuers.”
Which Balchunas believed had made the industry “hustle their ass off” with a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) underwriting the industry in recent weeks.
Material Indicators Observations
Not everyone within the industry is totally taken with the current happenings around the ETFs and Bitcoin, with Material Indicators founder and CEO, Keith Alan pointing out how there was reduced sell-side liquidity with only $50 million in bid support down to the 43k mark.
Something to consider before you FOMO into #BTC at this level.
There is ~$175M in #BTC ask liquidity (aka resistance) stacked between here and $50k, and only ~$50M in bid support down to $43k. As a #DataVisualization tool, #FireCharts illustrates it perfectly.
The Weekly close… pic.twitter.com/fERqqRA2U7
— Keith Alan (@KAProductions) February 9, 2024
It warned how traders of different portfolios had to now adjust saying, “If you are a short-term trader the risk/reward on a long from here, it looks like s***,” while stating how the regular traders and investors had to take a “long-term outlook for Bitcoin.”
Digital Wager Wire Conclusions
Here at Digital Wager Wire, a surge in value for Bitcoin during recent days made us revisit the price, which is closing in on $50,000, asking what has propelled the action in recent days.
What we found is that the financial giants, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) have set 30-year records for the ETF acquisitions with each buying up over $3 billion. The narrative behind recent times has made the bull investors’ confidence grow and drawn others in who have been engulfed by a sense of FOMO that currently surrounds the industry.
There was a voice of reason from Material Indicators whose CEO suggested short-term traders would likely find immediate problems due to the sell side of Bitcoin having poor liquidity.
As the saying goes, you cannot have your cake and eat it all the time, hence those short-term sellers will have to sit on their hands and let the market settle down because the long-term future of Bitcoin looks bright!
