Bitcoin or BTC has surged surpassing its previous all-time highs and set a new record of $69,170 with a market capitalization of nearly $1.35 trillion. Currently, BTC is down by 1.89% in the last 24 hours as of March 6, 2024. At the time of writing, BTC was at $65,944 slowly receding from its meteoric rise.

The cryptocurrency’s Fear and Greed Index is in the zone of “extreme greed”. Bitcoin prices have skyrocketed to $69,170, setting a new all-time high record and surpassing its previous peak of $68,789 from 27 months ago. Bitcoin has reached $69,170 even before the much-awaited Bitcoin Halving event, which is expected to take the cryptocurrency to unprecedented heights.

Bitcoin Price Hits 2-year High and Sets a New Record of $69,000

The Bitcoin price hits its new record of $69,170 after a period of two years and the rise can be attributed to the market’s booming interest in Spot Bitcoin ETFs. According to the Farside Investors data, Bitcoin ETFs have soared to an excellent level of $6.7 billion since the Securities and Exchange Commission gave them an approval at the beginning of the year. These Bitcoin ETFs, on average, are clocking a daily inflow of nearly $210 million. 

In the last few months, the price surge has been triggered by allocation by institutional players and increased retail participation owing to Spot Bitcoin ETFs and the upcoming Bitcoin Halving event. In the meantime, the surge coexists with a broader rally in the cryptocurrency market. Ethereum or ETH, too, has touched the level of $3,755, rising by 15.05% in the last seven days.  

How Does the $520 Million Inflow into Bitcoin ETFs Affect Bitcoin’s Price?

The last week started off brilliantly for Bitcoin ETFs as they recorded an inflow of $520 million on Monday and increased to $577 million on Tuesday, registering a rise of 10.96%. This massive inflow came in helped by BlackRock iShares – ETF witnessing an inflow of $520 million alone, and resulted in BTC touching $63,000 levels much before the Bitcoin halving. 

According to the BitMEX research data, the BlackRock iShare ETF is currently leading the Spot Bitcoin ETF that which witnessed a net inflow of $577 million yesterday and it alone has $520 million. Since its launch, this happens to be the third-largest inflow, as all the nine Spot Bitcoin ETFs reported solid trading volumes.

The net inflow of ETFs hit over $6.5 billion and asset holdings hovered over 1,41,000 BTC. Fidelity Bitcoin ETF witnessed $126 million and Ark 21Shares a net inflow of $5.4 million. Other Spot ETFs also saw solid inflows, showcasing strong bullish sentiment and a probable bull run. Grayscale’s GBTC, too, witnessed a $125.6 million outflow, which is an increase from Monday’s $22.4 million outflow, building hopes of a standard shift. 

After witnessing an exceptional price surge on March 5, 2024, BTC touched the level of $69,170, setting a new all-time record before Bitcoin halving. However, Spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced slight slump with the total net flow dropping from $678.67 million on Feb. 29 to $141.27 million on March 6, 2024, as reported by “The Block.”

$142 Million Liquidated Over Last 24 Hours

Bitcoin reached its all-time high on March 5, 2024, setting a new record. Soon after, traders liquidated their profits, withdrawing more than $142 million in an hour.

According to Spot Market Data, investors did not wait to cash in profits, as over $142 million was exchanged for USDT on Binance alone. This implies that short-term investors feared a correction as the market rallied continuously for the last two weeks. Bitcoin dropped by around 5% following this liquidation, and at the time of writing, it is trading at $66,077.

This liquidation was not exclusive to Bitcoin; the overall cryptocurrency market saw over $720 million liquidated since the breakthrough. Meme coins suffered the sharp edges of this liquidation as dominant tokens like Dogwifhat (WIF), BONK, and FLOKI have been down by over 15% since BTC reached its peak. These three tokens experienced outstanding rallies over the past months, jumping over 100% in a week.

As of March 6, 2024, the BTC price is $66,178, reflecting a decrease of 4.61% since yesterday, following its all-time high. 

BTC Hitting $69,000 – Is This a Sign of a Bull Run or a Bull Trap?

Whether the surge in Bitcoin prices and its hitting its new all-time high at $69,170 after two years is a sign of a bull run or a bull trap, investors should trade cautiously at a time when the market has mixed views on crypto trades slipping into a bull trap and others with an optimistic approach towards Bitcoin surge even higher. 

The cryptocurrency market is performing very well at the moment and investors need to be careful as rapid volatility can simply result in money evaporating as quickly as it was multiplying.

The last time the BTC price was above $57,000 was in the year 2021, when the price peaked and was began the coin’s reversal into a prolonged bear market. By the start of the year 2022, the price had sunk to $32,987, which is almost a 42% decline. The current market shows some shades of similarities and may end up being a bull trap.

Bottom Line

The overexcitement around the U.S. approval of a Bitcoin Futures ETFs has hyped optimism across the crypto industry. This has extensively opened doors for investors to jump on to the BTC bandwagon, driving the prices and demand higher. 

This is a good opportunity for investors to take advantage of the Bitcoin surge as it is driven by the Bitcoin halving event and the ETH Dencun upgrade but only with extreme caution. As we all know, the crypto market is highly unpredictable and history testifies BTC is utterly volatile with past price movements reflecting BTC prices falling more than a third in value. The current surge could just be a conceited bull trap, no one can be sure.