The price of bitcoin jumped beyond $66,000 on Monday afternoon, leaving it just $3,000 short of its record high.
At 5pm London time, bitcoin was trading at $66,327, its highest total since November 2021.
The bull run comes after the US securities regulator approved a series of bitcoin exchange traded funds, dramatically widening the opportunity for institutional and individual investors to back the crypto.
Last week, bitcoin spot ETFs saw a cumulative net inflow of around $1.7billion, meaning that money going in has topped $7.4billion since establishment, according to Fineqia.
As of Monday afternoon, bitcoin was trading at over $66,000, leaving it just under $3,000 short of the record-high $69,000
A move higher also arrived for gold, which hit a new record high today. The price of the precious metal surged to $2,114 (£1,664) an ounce in the spot market, after steady increases over the past few weeks.
The surge saw trading volumes for bitcoin spot ETFs total $22.3billion, with a daily average trading volume of just under $4.5billion.
Blackrock’s iBIT led the way with over $10billion in assets under management (AUM) last week, the fastest ETF in history to achieve this AUM milestone.
The news comes just a few days after bitcoin jumped beyond $57,000 on Tuesday, peaking at $64,000 on Wednesday.
Bitcoin is now trading at its highest price in dollar terms since November 2021 and is helping spark a rally in other major cryptocurrencies like ethereum, which was over $3,500 as of Monday afternoon – its highest price since April 2022.
Last week, Simon Peters, market analysist at eToro, told This is Money: ‘The driving force behind the price move seems to be from the recently approved bitcoin spot ETFs continuing to acquire bitcoin in significant quantities.
‘Since launch, the bitcoin spot ETFs have amassed holdings that represent over 3 per cent of all bitcoin currently in existence. This milestone highlights a growing trend of institutional investors wanting to get exposure to bitcoin.’
Peters also added that we could see a new all-time high ‘in the coming weeks’.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has regained significant ground since falling to to a low of $16,000 in the wake of the collapse of FTX in 2022.
In 2023, bitcoin languished between $20,000 and $30,000 for much of the year before reaching $43,000 by December in anticipation of the US regulator’s approval of bitcoin spot ETFs.
It neared the $48,000 mark for the first time in a year ahead of the decision before dropping to $38,000 following the decision.
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