Market $ 750 billion, nearly doubling this month as Bitcoin reaches new highs

Top line

Bitcoin’s massive rally continued over the weekend, pushing the market capitalization of the world’s first and largest cryptocurrency to $ 1.2 trillion on Saturday, leading to the broader crypto market’s largest monthly profit on record as institutional adoption helps to pour billions of dollars into the budding space.

Key facts

From 9:30 a.m. ET, the price of bitcoin has risen 9% over the past 24 hours to about $ 57,350, pushing weekly gains to more than 20%, according to CoinMarketCap.

The prices of ether and binoculars, the second and third largest token in the world, rose by 13% and 120% respectively in the past week, helping the broader crypto market to reach a total value of almost $ 1.8 billion earn – almost twice as much as the market capitalization of $ 1 billion at the beginning of February.

Experts, including Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives, have brought much of the profits to a flood of institutional adoption in recent weeks after electric car maker Tesla announced a $ 1.5 billion bitcoin investment earlier this month.

In the publicly traded MicroStrategy, one of bitcoin’s largest corporate shareholders, it raised nearly $ 1.1 billion in debt on Friday to buy more of the groundbreaking cryptocurrency – almost twice as much as the firm originally expected to to raise, given the wave of interest.

On Thursday and Friday, North America’s first two bitcoin exchange-traded funds debuted on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with more than $ 200 million from investors.

Despite the fact that much of the cryptocurrency has been fueled in recent weeks, billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted early Saturday that bitcoin and ether prices now ‘look high’, although he also indicated that the crypto-currency could offer better protection against inflation than gold, the original safe haven.

Surprising fact

The price of bitcoin reached a new high of $ 57,505 around 07:45 on Saturday – almost 6 times its value one year ago.

Important background

The market’s recent gains have now blurred the short-lived price mania that began in 2017, during which prices climbed 15 times to an increase of almost $ 20,000, thanks in part to apps like Coinbase that made trading easier for individual investors. The bubble appears to be unsustainable, and the price of bitcoin plummeted by 80% by the end of 2018, when countries such as South Korea began to suppress trade in cryptocurrencies.

What we do not know

The biggest question mark around the future of cryptocurrency is regulation, which eventually led to cryptocurrency prices rising three years ago. Officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission have hinted that improved investigation may be on the way, but not all experts are convinced it will hurt the market. “Given the still emerging and volatile nature, we believe that less than 5% of public enterprises will move in some capacities on the bitcoin investment path over the next 12 to 18 months, but may move significantly higher if more regulation and acceptance of this currency takes further along the way, ”Ives said on Friday.

Tangent

Even staunch bitcoin critics are warming up to the sign amid recent gains. Billionaire Jeffrey Gundlach, the CEO of DoubleLine Capital who once called bitcoin a lie, ‘bitcoin’ the stimulus asset ‘in a tweet Thursday, citing concerns that increased government spending could yield problematic inflation and increase the value of the dollar, while boosting assets such as safe havens such as bitcoin and gold.

Further reading

Bitcoin market value shoots above $ 1 trillion amid Tesla-fueled boom (Forbes)

Bitcoin rises to new high after Tesla says it has invested $ 1.5 billion (Forbes)

Not Just Tesla: Big Institutions Stack in Bitcoin as Price Fires Over $ 50,000 (Forbes)

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