LONDON: On Monday, Bitcoin surged to a two-year high, surpassing $66,000 as a surge of capital brought it dangerously close to record highs.
After hitting a new two-year high in Asian trade, the price rose 5.4% in Europe to reach a session high of $66,240.
This year, the largest cryptocurrency by market value has increased by 50%, with the majority of the gain occurring in the last few weeks due to a spike in inflows into US-listed bitcoin ETFs.
Earlier this year, US authorities legalized spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Their introduction provided access for new major investors and has sparked renewed energy and enthusiasm similar to the surge to all-time highs in 2021.
The head of research at Singapore’s 10x Research, a cryptocurrency analytics firm, Markus Thielen, stated, “The flows are not drying up as investors feel more confident the higher price appears to go.”
According to LSEG statistics, net flows into the top 10 US spot bitcoin funds totaled $2.17 billion in the week ending March 1. Of those net flows, over half went into BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust.
Rival, smaller ether, has benefited from conjecture that exchange-traded funds may soon be the source of inflows for it as well. With a 50 percent gain so far this year, it was trading near two-year highs on Monday, up 2.6 percent for the day at $3,518.
The surge has coincided with record lows on stock indices, including the tech-heavy Nasdaq, the S&P 500, and Japan’s Nikkei, as well as declining volatility indicators for foreign exchange and stocks.
