Bitcoin market cap crosses $1 trillion as buyers flood in By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Illustration of bitcoin cryptocurrency is seen on this illustration taken January 11, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photograph

WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) -The entire worth invested in bitcoin surpassed $1 trillion on Wednesday for the primary time since November 2021 as inflows to U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds continued to assist cryptocurrency costs.

‘s worth reached as excessive as $52,079 on Wednesday, its newest 25-month excessive. It was final up 4.29% at $51,690, taking the token’s market cap to $1.013 trillion in line with worth platform Coingecko.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency has risen round 22% for the reason that begin of February, already set for its largest month-to-month rise since October.

Sturdy inflows to new U.S. listed ETFs have pushed a number of the worth motion in latest weeks, say analysts, and capital flows into the 11 U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs elevated to $1.64 billion within the week to Wednesday, LSEG Lipper information confirmed.

The earlier 5 buying and selling classes noticed inflows of $409 million to the merchandise, which obtained regulatory approval and started buying and selling in January.

“Whether or not this tempo shall be sustained stays to be seen however in crypto, worth typically drives movement,” stated analysts at crypto liquidity supplier B2C2.

“One has to think about that if there are extra days like the previous couple of, giant inflows shall be met by additional worth rises for spot (bitcoin).”

Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis World Capital on Wednesday obtained permission from a U.S. courtroom to promote about $1.6 billion in shares in Grayscale Investments’ spot bitcoin ETF as a part of its effort to repay collectors.

The all-time excessive for bitcoin’s market cap was $1.28 trillion hit in November 2021, in line with Coingecko.

Investments in bitcoin make up greater than half of the $2.01 trillion parked within the general cryptocurrency market which incorporates ether and different digital cash.

CRYPTO-LINKED STOCKS JUMP

Shares of U.S.-listed cryptocurrency firms additionally gained on Wednesday, with trade Coinbase (NASDAQ:) climbing 13.5%, whereas miners Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:) and CleanSpark (NASDAQ:) gained 12.2% and 11.3%, respectively.

Bitcoin had hit an all-time excessive of $69,000 in November 2021, earlier than struggling for a lot of 2022 and the primary a part of 2023, weighed down by financial tightening by world central banks and a slew of excessive profile failures at crypto firms, together with main trade FTX.

However in the previous couple of months, hopes of a tender touchdown for the economic system and the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs have helped sentiment. The ETFs have been touted as a game-changer for the trade, already identified for its enchantment to retail merchants, for the reason that merchandise allow traders to achieve publicity to bitcoin with out immediately holding the asset.

Second-largest token ether, which underpins the ethereum community, was final up 4.9% at $2,762, its highest since Could 2022.