- Bitcoin surpassed $57,000 as BlackRock’s IBIT reached a record $1.3 billion.
- BTC could hit or break all-time highs before the halving.
Bitcoin’s pre-halving rally pushed the cryptocurrency’s price to $57,000, putting it within 20% of its 2021 all-time high of $69,000.
The price of Bitcoin extended its gains above $57,000 late Monday after breaching the $54,000 level. On Coinbase, BTC rose to $57,250, with total short liquidation reaching $271 million. Bitcoin accounted for $189 million of liquidated shorts.
As Ethereum hit a high of $3,280, over $67.8 million worth of shorts were liquidated.
However, altcoins mainly watched Bitcoin’s bull market. Market information platform Santiment shared This X Tuesday morning.
“#Bitcoin has now reached a peak market cap of $57,250, coming within 19.9% of the high of $68.6K set 27 months ago. Now, trader interest in $BTC is very high as #altcoins temporarily take a backseat at a critical moment.”
BlackRock’s IBIT trades $1 billion worth of stocks.
Bitcoin’s rally has coincided with the outstanding performance of spot Bitcoin ETFs, with BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ($IBIT) outperforming the rest. $IBIT accounted for $1.3 billion of the $2.4 billion total trading volume recorded on Monday, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.
It’s official, the New Nine Bitcoin ETF broke its all-time trading volume record today with $2.4 billion. That barely beat the first day, but is about double the recent daily average. $GO Of that amount, it earned $1.3 billion, breaking the record by about 30%. pic.twitter.com/MiCs1rzttM
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 26, 2024
The upward momentum also follows the news that MicroStrategy purchased 3,000 BTC, taking the total to 193,000 BTC, for a total of $6.09 billion. The company’s most recent BTC purchases amounted to $155 million.
Bitcoin was trading around $56,430 early Tuesday morning.