For the first time since November 2021, Bitcoin has over $63 thousand
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Wednesday marked the first time that the price of bitcoin (BTC) has risen above $63,000 since the peak of the previous bull market in November 2021. This marks the first time that the original cryptocurrency has been able to surpass that level.
This week’s massive gain has coincided with massive inflows into unlisted exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are traded in the United States. On Tuesday, the new funds added more than 12,000 bitcoins, following the addition of approximately 10,000 bitcoins on Monday. In addition, this comes just before the so-called “halving” of bitcoin, which is scheduled to take place in April. This is an event that occurs once every four years and typically coincides with significant profits as the production of new bitcoins slows down.
A fierce upswing in the price of bitcoin has been going on for several months, but it has gained speed this week. There were only a few days ago when its price was lower than $51,000. Only a few hours before it surpassed $63,000, it had already surpassed the $60,000 mark.
At the time of publication, the value of bitcoin had increased by more than ten percent during the previous twenty-four hours. Over the same time period, the broader CoinDesk 20 Index, which serves as a benchmark for the most prominent cryptocurrencies, experienced a 7.8% increase.
The value of the cryptocurrency has increased by an astounding twenty percent in just five days. With the advances that occurred on Wednesday, it is getting closer to its all-time high of almost $69,000, which was reached in November 2021, the last time that bitcoin traded for more than $60,000.
During the past month, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission gave its approval for bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which has resulted in billions of dollars coming into the cryptocurrency market. This has contributed to the rally.
In addition to this, the imminent “halving” of bitcoin is another significant element at play. The term “halving” refers to the inherent characteristic of bitcoin that automatically slows down the rate at which new coins are generated and released into circulation. An event of this nature occurs around once every four years and, in principle, causes the price of bitcoin to increase since it generates further scarcity of a currency that is already limited in supply.
The reason for this is that when a certain threshold is reached, the bitcoin miners, who are responsible for the algorithms that are required to solve difficult mathematical problems that are inherent to utilizing the currency, have their reward that is denominated in bitcoin slashed in half.
The halving of the bitcoin supply has been known to trigger large bullish moments in the past. However, there is no hard rule that states that this is the result every time. A few circumstances, such as the potential implementation of additional rules, could reduce all of the potential benefits that could result from a halving.
Coinbase Support posted on X at approximately one o’clock in the afternoon Eastern Time on Wednesday, stating that “some users may see a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts and may experience errors in buying or selling.” Our staff is currently looking into this matter and will provide an update soon. Each of your valuables is secure.”
Coinbase then announced in another post on X that it was “beginning to see improvement in customer trading.” This announcement came an hour and a half later. Additionally, it was mentioned that users might still be experiencing some problems “due to increased traffic.”
Investors, on the other hand, appear to be hopeful that this would not be the case, and they are racing to get in on the action or cash out their winnings. According to a post by the company’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, published on X on Wednesday, the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange platform experienced significant outages because of the increase in trade.
We apologize for any problems that may arise because of the massive increase in traffic that we are currently experiencing. The team is currently making remediation efforts.
Brian Armstrong | @brian_armstrong (@brian_armstrong) The 28th of February 2024
Beyond the X tweets, Coinbase refuses to comment on issues related to the cryptocurrency.
Even though the X postings were made, Coinbase refuses to respond regarding the outages.
