Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by capitalization, has unlocked another milestone after breaching past its initial market cap all-time high (ATH) of $1.206 trillion. The digital asset achieved this feat yesterday after its capitalization swelled to $1,211,242,526,571. At the time of writing, BTC’s market cap has had a slight downward correction from its peak to sit at $1,208,651,432,230.
Meanwhile, BTC’s price is inching closer to its April 14 ATH of $64,863.10. The coin is up 3.33% over the past 24 hours to change hands at $64,132.96. According to CoinMarketCap, this figure represents a 1.04% difference between BTC’s ATH and its current price.
Data from TradingView shows that BTC is set to continue with its rally in the short term. In the four-hour, one-day, and one-week charts, BTC’s technicals are bullish, with Oscillators neutral and the Moving Averages pointing to a strong buying force. Should BTC continue rising, it is set to meet resistance at the $64,148.07, $64,275.73, and $64,599.03 levels before revisiting its ATH.
In the meantime, BTC reserves across crypto exchanges have plunged to a three-year low as investors withdraw their holdings into cold wallets for long-term storage. According to CryptoQuant, BTC’s reserves on all exchanges currently stand at 2.40 million, a level last seen in July 2018.
First BTC-related ETF begins trading
This news comes after the SEC approved the first BTC futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) of Friday, giving ProShares the go-ahead to launch its Bitcoin Strategy ETF. The investment vehicle, which goes under the ticker symbol BITO, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) yesterday.
Although the ETF is not based on BTC’s spot market, it seems to have received support from the crypto community. Reportedly, the ETF recorded a trading volume of over $320 million during its first 30 minutes of trading.
The ETF started trading at $40.88 before setting a daily high and low of $42.15 and $40.07, respectively. At the time of writing, BITO is changing hands at $41.94 after gaining 2.59% today.
BITO’s performance helped BTC trend higher, proving analysts that believed its listing would trigger a crash in the BTC market wrong.
While the ETF got an overwhelming response, part of the crypto community is not satisfied with an ETF based on BTC futures contracts. An Example is Grayscale Investments, which filed to convert its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the largest BTC investment vehicle in the world, into an ETF based on BTC’s spot market.
BTC’s critics continue bashing the coin
As BTC continues achieving new milestones, Steve Hanke, a renowned basher of the flagship cryptocurrency, took to Twitter to criticize its recent performance. Misinformed about BTC’s performance, Hanke said BTC had hit a new ATH a day after the ProShares BTC futures ETF started trading. He further noted that this is a bandwagon effect, and the crypto space should enjoy it while it lasts.
However, this is not the first time Hanke has said BTC is a bubble destined to burst. On April 13, he tweeted,
“#BREAKING: With #Bitcoin setting a new all-time high of $63,273/BTC, the Bitcoin bubble just keeps growing bigger and bigger. That’s what bubbles do. Until they pop.”
