Only two days after crossing the $50K mark, Bitcoin (BTC) continues its climb as it just conquered the $51K range. The price not seen since the end of 2021 now puts the market cap of the digital asset at $1 trillion.
Bitcoin Jumps to $51K
Bitcoin just achieved new heights today at around 9:00 AM UTC as it leaped into the $51K realm. As of this writing at around 3:00 PM UTC, the largest crypto by market cap is now trading at the $51,900 line and is displaying nearly 7% gain on the 24-hour chart. The soaring numbers took the total market value of the coin’s circulating supply of more than 19 million BTC to $1.018 trillion.
Within the same span, it saw a 9% dip in trading volume as $39.21 billion worth of BTC moved between wallets and exchanges. Along the way, prices moved between a low of $48,406 and a high of $51,909.
The development now narrows down the gap between the prevailing price of Bitcoin from its all-time high (ATH) by less than 25%. This once again refuels the narrative that the digital asset may finally be on its way toward surpassing its previously recorded peak this 2024.
What’s Fueling the Bull Run
The main narrative driving Bitcoin right now is its impending halving, which is estimated to happen this coming April 18. The cyclical phenomenon occurring every four years in the BTC ecosystem constantly reduces rewards per block mined by 50%.
Another factor influencing the rally is the growing retail and institutional adoption of Bitcoin through the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US. In their first 30 days of trading alone, both BlackRock and Fidelity were able to log a combined $3 billion in assets under management (AUM) in their respective Bitcoin ETFs.
As of today’s pre-market, both haven’t shown any sign of slowing down as their ETFs just rose 4.6% and 4.9%, respectively. So far, BlackRock has reported $4.6 billion in inflows since February 11 while Fidelity trailed at $3.3 billion inflows.
Recently, Pomp Investments Founder Anthony Pompliano claimed that the massive demand created by spot Bitcoin ETFs is now starting to overwhelm the circulating supply of BTC. “The inflows from these funds are doing $500 million a day of net inflows, but there’s only 900 Bitcoin coming into the daily incoming supply,” he explained earlier.
What’s more, the data he gathered indicated that almost 80% of all Bitcoin in circulation hadn’t moved in the past six months, which further tightens the supply. From those numbers, approximately 5% have already been siphoned by spot Bitcoin ETFs in just a month since their regulatory approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).