© Reuters Bitcoin rally brings crypto market close to two-trillion dollars
Proactive Investors – Bitcoin (BTC) stayed comfortably above $50,000 over the weekend, despite a 2.5% dip against the US dollar on Saturday.
These losses were comfortably recovered on Sunday though, while the world’s largest cryptocurrency added a few more points this morning.
At the time of writing, the pair was swapping for $52,262.
Bitcoin trades might be more muted with US markets closed on Monday, though bulls are eyeing up a move above $52,500, where selling resistance is currently camped, as shown by Binance’s order book.
Bitcoin has increased its spot price by a fifth year to date, thanks in part to substantial cash inflows into the 10 spot-bitcoin exchange-traded funds approved in the US on 10 January.
Bloomberg data shows these ETFs netting $2.3 billion in cash inflows last week, led predominantly by the BlackRock (NYSE:) iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT).
Net inflows across all ETFs since 10 January have exceeded $5 billion, according to Bloomberg’s ETF seer Eric Balchunas, a figure significantly offset by outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
Investors have been quick to cash out of GBTC due to its comparatively high 1.5% management fee, though not all of these redemptions have shifted to cheaper competing bitcoin ETFs.
The 10 bitcoin ETFs netted +$2.3b last week. For context, that is more than any other ETF (out of 3,400) took in. $IBIT alone was #2. This brings total net to +$5b, which is more than BlackRock as a whole has taken in. Again, this is all net GBTC bleed. Throw that out and the… https://t.co/PlxnfQ7ETf pic.twitter.com/04LTixd3Zt
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 17, 2024
Ethereum (ETH) posted a bullish Sunday session, rising 3.4% against the US dollar and another percentage point this morning, bringing the spot price to a fresh 21-month high of $2,910.
In the wider altcoin space, (DOGE) picked up the pace with a 3% overnight gain, while (SOL), (XRP) and (ADA) added less than one percent.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at $1.98 trillion, as it nears the $2 trillion mark for the first time since April 2022.
