March 18, 2024
By Anjali Kochhar
Bitcoin’s impressive rally persisted last week, driven by a surge of investment in new spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds and optimism surrounding potential interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
At the same time, its market capitalization has soared to $1.414 trillion, overtaking that of silver to secure the eighth position among the world’s most valuable assets. Last week, the largest cryptocurrency by value hit an all-time high of over $72,850.
According to Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex, the market capitalization of BTC has now reached $1.414 trillion, surpassing that of silver, which stands at $1.38 trillion. This positive momentum is attributed to the increasing interest in Bitcoin spot ETFs and the impending Bitcoin halving event.
Bitcoin has surpassed the market cap of Meta, now valued at $1.23 trillion. The next milestone in Bitcoin’s rise is Alphabet, the parent company of Google, currently valued at just under $1.72 trillion. Bitcoin enthusiasts are also setting their sights on gold, the world’s most valuable asset, which boasts a market capitalization of $14.7 trillion.
The rally in Bitcoin received additional momentum as Britain’s financial watchdog announced last week its approval for recognized investment exchanges to introduce crypto-backed exchange-traded notes, joining a growing list of regulators supporting digital asset trading products.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK regulator, stated in a statement that these products would only be accessible to professional investors, such as investment firms and credit institutions authorized to operate in financial markets.
Asset managers’ net long position, which is typically understood to cover institutional investor holdings like mutual funds and pension funds, increased to 15,531 lots in the week leading up to March 5; at the current price of bitcoin, this represents a $5.5 billion position.
This year, Bitcoin has increased by over 70%, with the majority of that growth occurring in the last few weeks. However, during the past year, it has increased by more than 250%.
About the author
Anjali Kochhar covers cryptocurrency stories in India as well as globally. Having been in the field of media and journalism for over three years now, she has developed a sharp news sense and works hard to present information that goes beyond the obvious. She is an avid reader and loves writing on a wide range of subjects.
