- Bitcoin (BTC) records a new all-time high (ATH) this Friday at $70,083.05.
- A massive profit-taking followed but prices only dipped around the $66,000 line, signaling a bullish sentiment for the market.
- Bitcoin is the tenth-largest asset in the world by market cap and the third-largest decentralized asset globally alongside gold and silver.
Bitcoin Price Now
Bitcoin just touched a new all-time high a few hours ago to $70,083.05 before another massive profit-taking crashed prices at $66,230.45. The dip is notably much higher than Wednesday’s low at around $61,000, which indicates solid optimism by the consensus.
As of 5:30 AM UTC, BTC price recovered to around $68,300. Trading volume rose by 32% as $58.18 billion worth of BTC moved between addresses.
The new ATH of Bitcoin raised the valuation of its 19.65 million circulating supply briefly to $1.375 trillion before a retracement to the present $1.343 trillion. The peak of BTC today was only $5 billion short of surpassing silver’s market cap.
Silver currently ranks ninth among the top assets in the world by market cap while Bitcoin sits tenth. The retracement of BTC price again widened the gap between the two by $37 billion. Interestingly, Bitcoin is the third largest decentralized asset by market next to gold and silver.
Spot Bitcoin ETF Trading in the US
The ensuing selling pressure was also reflected in the US spot Bitcoin ETF market. After achieving over $648 million in net inflows on March 5 at BTC’s previous ATH, the surprising rally of the digital asset this Friday dropped the net inflows to $223 million.
BlackRock’s IBIT still emerged as the best performer with $336.3 million net inflows. The spot Bitcoin ETF market showed significant gains overall but these were offset by the net outflows of Grayscale’s GBTC at $302.9 million and Invesco’s BTCO at $7.6 million.
What’s Driving Bitcoin Prices?
The generally bullish sentiment of the market toward BTC is driven by the growing retail and institutional demand for the asset, which is primarily reflected by the performance of the spot Bitcoin ETF in the US, and the anticipation for the halving expected around 40 days from now.
The halving is expected to trigger a new level of scarcity for the asset as block rewards are decreased from the prevailing 6.25 BTC per block to 3.125 BTC post-halving amid the strong retail and institutional demand. With only 6,155 blocks remaining on the way to the halving’s predetermined activation at the 840,000th block height, the halving is estimated to happen between April 18 and 20.
Although it’s not generating as much noise as the halving, Ethereum’s (ETH) Dencun upgrade next week is likewise projected to drag the cryptocurrency market up with ETH prices possibly pumping over $4,000 during the event. How much it will affect Bitcoin remains to be seen because it may shift focus away from the leading crypto asset, maintain the status quo, or catalyze a short-term “sell the news” event.
Nonetheless, other altcoins will likely benefit from the Ether ecosystem update as much as they are capitalizing on the positive price movements of Bitcoin.