On February 29th, the price of Bitcoin continued to soar, reaching a new high since November 2021, with a daily increase of over 7%. The highest price reached $64000, just one step away from the historical high of nearly $69000. As prices rise, Bitcoin's market value once again exceeds $1.2 trillion, comparable to tech giant Meta. As of publication, the price of Bitcoin has fallen to above $61000.
Image from CoinMarketCap
Market insiders believe that this round of upward trend is mainly due to the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs in January and the impact of Bitcoin's imminent halving.
Ben Laidler, global market strategist at eToro, a cryptocurrency retail investment platform, said that Bitcoin is supported by a continuous influx of new spot ETFs, as well as the impact of the April halving event and market predictions for the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut in June.
Last month, after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 11 Bitcoin spot ETFs for the first time, billions of dollars of funds flowed into the Bitcoin market, which to some extent drove up the price of Bitcoin.
On the other hand, the halving of Bitcoin will occur in late April. A cryptocurrency observer once told Paper (www.thepaper. cn) that the production of Bitcoin will halve again this year, which is a significant event that will change the supply and demand relationship of Bitcoin. As a built-in feature of Bitcoin, it is halved approximately every four years to automatically reduce the speed at which new Bitcoin enters circulation. Yu Jianing, Co Chairman of the Blockchain Committee of the China Communications Industry Association and Honorary Chairman of the Hong Kong Blockchain Association, analyzed to The Paper that the market is optimistic about the upcoming halving of Bitcoin prices, which may also push up Bitcoin prices during this period.
Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Nexo, said that as Bitcoin approaches $69000, there is expected to be some resistance, but a price above $60000 should pique the interest of investors who have not yet participated in this rebound this year, especially retail investors.
The last time $60000 was spent on a Bitcoin site was from October to November 2021, and then reached a historical high of $68800 on November 10, 2021. After reaching a historic high, Bitcoin continued to decline until reaching a low of around $16000 by the end of 2022. Since November 2022, the cryptocurrency industry has fallen into a "Lehman moment", as several cryptocurrency companies, including the former top cryptocurrency exchange FTX, collapsed, and the cryptocurrency lending platform BlockFi went bankrupt, causing Bitcoin prices to drop below $16000. Until early 2023, the Bitcoin market has shown some recovery.
With the rise of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency trading platforms are under pressure. On February 28th local time, Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, stated on social media that the platform is dealing with a massive surge in traffic and the team is working hard to repair it. The Coinbase support department stated that some users may see their account balance as zero, and there may be errors when buying and selling.
Image from X (original Twitter)