Bitcoin’s greatest winning streak since May propelled the token beyond $44,000, raising concerns about whether the crypto breakout is increasingly reflecting a belief that looser Federal Reserve monetary policy is on the way.
Bitcoin overcame a drop in global stock markets to record another more than 19-month high, indicating the currency’s independence from other assets.
Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $43,718.13 with a 24-hour trading volume of $23,424,060,387.98. This is a 4.69% increase in the last 24 hours and a 15.29% increase in the last 7 days.
The global crypto market valuation is now $1.67 trillion, a 4.06% increase over the last 24 hours and an 88.46% increase over a year ago. Bitcoin (BTC) has a market cap of $856 billion as of today, reflecting a 51.21% market dominance. Meanwhile, the market cap of stablecoins is $130 billion, accounting for 7.78% of the total crypto market cap.
Bitcoin hits new levels. Will there be a $50K breakout soon?
The markets’ conviction that a spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) will be approved in January 2024 is the most likely driver for Bitcoin’s surge to $44,000, and this is bringing huge capital inflows from institutional investors.
Following former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s guilty plea and the exchange’s agreement to pay a $4.3 billion settlement to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Nov. 21, Bitcoin price initially displayed contradictory indications.
After some time to process the outcome, the market began to notice that the Binance exchange was not experiencing a huge withdrawal of funds, as FTX did when its liquidity crisis initially became known. Leaders in the crypto ecosystem, such as Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, regard the settlement as a net gain overall.
I think they’re de-risked in lots of ways. People were worried about dealing with Binance. There’s a lot less to worry about now
If you went through the list of TradFi banks who have been sanctioned or fined by different regulators in the last 24 months, it’s a shocking list. So you’re not looking for zero mistakes. Otherwise, there’d be no one to deal with.
Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz
While Binance’s Bitcoin reserves were initially 17% lower than their all-time high, the exchange is now seeing BTC inflows again. Binance’s Bitcoin balance has risen by approximately 1% since the initial outflows.
In comparison, FTX BTC reserves were drained by 99.9% from their all-time high when the exchange underwent a run on the bank in November 2022 and never recovered. According to Nansen’s research, the largest crypto exchange, Binance, is back to normal operations.
Crypto industry’s performance against traditional finance markets
Bitcoin’s correlations with stocks and gold have waned in 2023, as crypto-specific variables contributed to the greatest digital asset’s 160% rise. The oldest and largest crypto was even a standout in the digital-asset market, rising 1.4% as others like as Dogecoin, Avalanche, and Polygon dropped.
Gains in crypto-related stocks have also been extended. Coinbase, MicroStrategy, and Marathon Digital all climbed for a third day, bringing their total year gains to more than 300%.
The 90-day correlation coefficient between Bitcoin and the MSCI Inc. world stock index has decreased to 0.18 from 0.60 at the start of the year. According to a comparable study, the figure for the token and spot gold has dropped to almost zero from 0.36.
A result of 1 suggests that assets are moving in lockstep, whereas a reading of -1 shows that they are going in opposite directions.
BTC performance across the globe
Some technical indicators, such as the 14-day relative strength index, indicate that Bitcoin’s surge has become stretched. The index is currently at 75, which is above the 70 level considered overbought.
The overall upbeat mood can be found in a number of countries. Bitcoin was trading nearly 4% higher than the current global price on South Korea’s Upbit and Bithumb exchanges on Wednesday, reintroducing the so-called “kimchi premium” that grabbed headlines during the pandemic-era bull run in digital currencies.
Phoenix Group Plc, an Abu Dhabi-based vendor of crypto mining technology, rose 35% on its initial public offering on Tuesday. The company is the Middle East’s first crypto-related listing. According to Nayib Bukele, who posted on X this week, El Salvador’s Bitcoin investments have proved profitable. After stepping down as president last week, he is running for reelection.
Another driver of mood is the upcoming Bitcoin halving, which will cut in half the quantity of tokens that Bitcoin miners earn as a reward for their efforts. The quadrennial event is part of the process of limiting the quantity of Bitcoin to 21 million coins. After the last three halvings, the coin set new highs.
