Over $1 billion liquidated from the cryptocurrency market over the past 24 hours. This was followed by Bitcoin surging to a new all-time high in more than two years, yet the original cryptocurrency didn’t stay at its new all-time high very long as many traders appear to have taken the opportunity to book some profit.
The token soared as much as 2.5 per cent to USD 69,191.95 shortly after 10 a.m. in New York, then almost immediately reversed course in a plunge that at one point sent it 14 per cent below the record to USD 59,317.16.
“Given that nearly everyone who has ever bought Bitcoin is now in profit, there are decent odds we see some amount of profit taking,” said Zaheer Ebtikar, founder of crypto fund Split Capital, as quoted by Bloomberg.
Bitcoin has also surpassed the previous record set in November 2021 – though by 2022 Bitcoin’s value had sunk to as low as USD 16,500.
Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise – another of the spot ETF issuers – suggested things are just getting started, with $250,000 bitcoin nearing faster than even bulls might fathom.
Why did Bitcoin surge?
Bitcoin has witnessed a breathtaking rebound this year amid robust demand from new US exchange-traded funds (ETF) and a looming reduction in the growth of the token’s supply. At its high on March 5, Bitcoin was up about 63 per cent so far in 2024, outperforming global stocks and spreading optimism across the digital-asset market.
Bitcoin owes much of its rebound to a regulator long-viewed as hostile to crypto: the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC approved spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in early January after suffering a legal defeat last year in its attempt to reject them. The move has widened the mass-market accessibility of Bitcoin, helping the crypto sector to turn the page following a bear market in 2022 and a string of subsequent bankruptcies, including the implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange, according to a report by Bloomberg.
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Published: 06 Mar 2024, 06:08 AM IST
