It's been a busy year so far for Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, and we're only in March. The digital currency soared above $69,000 on Tuesday morning, rising above $69,000 on Tuesday morning as demand surged in recent weeks following the approval of a Spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. and the pending Bitcoin halving in late April. This is the highest value since then.
Bitcoin is up more than 60% for the month and about 205% for the year, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization of all tokens increased by 18% to $2.55 trillion, with Bitcoin accounting for 52%.
This new high comes ahead of Bitcoin's halving, which is expected to occur in mid-April approximately every four years.
Bitcoin halving, commonly referred to as a “halving,” is a periodic decrease in the mining rate of Bitcoin. This means that the number of Bitcoins miners earn for each mined block is halved. This process aims to control the supply of Bitcoin over time and ends when the number of Bitcoins in circulation reaches the total supply of 21 million. However, the final half-life is not expected to occur for more than 100 years.
In the past, Bitcoin halvings have typically generated increased interest in the asset as demand outstrips supply and prices rise in the months following the event.
Also driving the price surge are the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January. These ETFs are attracting new institutional and retail investors working through financial advisors. As a result, a large amount of facility dry powder that had been sitting on the sidelines sprung into action.
According to HODL 15 Capital data shared on X by Matt Hogan, CIO of Bitwise Asset Management, the number of Bitcoins purchased by ETFs has recently exceeded the number of new Bitcoins produced by miners. .
Issuers of these ETFs are seeing a surge in demand that exceeds the billions of dollars originally predicted. According to Blockworks data, the total market cap of the Spot Bitcoin ETF product is $53.74 billion. The 24-hour trading volume was $1.81 billion.