Bitcoin (BTC) rose above $59,000 on Wednesday, putting it within striking distance of an all-time high, as enthusiasm for the world's largest cryptocurrency reached a level last seen during the 2021 boom.
The price of the digital asset is now up more than 15% over the week and 40% so far this year, largely due to excitement sparked by a series of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds that began trading in January.
Bitcoin is up more than 5% at $59,396 at last check, touching its highest point since November 2021. The current rally is testing whether the price can be pushed closer to its all-time high of $68,789. That peak came six months before a stunning collapse in 2022.
“Ultimately, what we see is that cryptocurrencies will kind of rise from the ashes of the 2022 market,” said Ryan Rasmussen, a senior crypto research analyst at Bitwise Asset Management.
“Our assumption is that Bitcoin will reach $125,000 by the end of 2025,” Benchmark's Mark Palmer added on Yahoo Finance Live.
Investors are bidding up other cryptocurrencies and related stocks as well. Year-to-date, the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), has outperformed Bitcoin by more than 5%, while the total market cap of all crypto assets has risen nearly 35% to $2.21 trillion, according to Coinmarketcap.
One sign of the growing enthusiasm for Bitcoin is trading activity in Bitcoin ETFs that launched in January, giving ordinary investors broad exposure to the digital asset. They had recorded more than $6.7 billion in net inflows as of Wednesday, according to the bank Data It was raised by London-based fund Farside Investors.
So far this quarter, Bitcoin trading volume has exceeded levels seen for the same period in each quarter of 2023. This activity has been a boon for major cryptocurrency trading venues, including Coinbase Global (COIN) and Robinhood (HOOD). These stocks have risen 27% and 31%, respectively, since the beginning of January.
Shares of Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (MARA) and Bitcoin holder Microstrategy (MSTR) rose 32% and 27%, respectively. MicroStrategy announced Monday morning that it had acquired an additional 3,000 bitcoins, bringing its total investment to 193,000 bitcoins, which was worth about $11 billion as of Tuesday.
Derivatives traders are also now riding high on Bitcoin, according to Cumberland Labs analyst Christopher Newhouse.
There are nearly $24 billion worth of open contracts in the bitcoin futures market, according to cryptocurrency derivatives data provider Coinglass. This is a new high for premium bets on Bitcoin futures, surpassing the mark last set in April 2021.
“In the options market, the narrative is clear,” Newhouse added. “People are optimistic.”
David Hollerith is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance covering banking, cryptocurrency, and other areas of finance.
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