Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, hit a new all-time high (ATH) of $71,500 on Monday, March 11.
This comes after the flagship cryptocurrency surpassed $70,000 for the first time on Friday, topping its previous record of $69,304 set on Tuesday.
Bitcoin has been on a steady upward trajectory over the past few months. Data from CoinGecko shows that the original cryptocurrency has risen more than 50% since last month, 38% in the previous two weeks, and 11% over the past weeks.
The Catalysts
The price of bitcoin has been primarily driven by several factors, including institutional inflows into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut rates in the coming months, and anticipation around the halving event.
Since the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs for trading in January, institutional investors have poured over $9 billion in cumulative net inflows into the products. Online data revealed that these products have a daily inflow of approximately $210 million.
Moreover, the total net asset value of all spot Bitcoin ETFs has reached approximately $54 billion. This means that 4% of bitcoin’s entire supply now backs these products.
More Rally Incoming?
With analysts forecasting more inflows into these products in the coming months, the flagship cryptocurrency is expected to continue to hit new milestones in the long run.
Interestingly, this marks the first time that bitcoin will continue to set new record highs before its halving, which aims to cut bitcoin’s block reward in half. This event is expected to further propel the price of Bitcoin as the rate at which new BTC enters circulation reduces, thus creating scarcity, which results in a surge in the price of an asset.
With a $71,500 price, bitcoin’s market cap currently stands at $1.40 trillion.
