Bitcoin (BTC) wasted no time in shaking off a quiet December, with the world’s foremost cryptocurrency soaring above $45,000 for the first time since April 2022.
On Monday alone, BTC/USD jumped 4.5%, followed by another 2.5% this morning to bring the pair up to $45,312 at the time of writing.
Sources told Reuters over the weekend that spot bitcoin ETF issuers may be informed either today or tomorrow of the fate of their applications in preparation for a 10 January launch.
This could see a dozen or more bitcoin ETFs launched on the New York stock market for the first time in bitcoin’s history, something Grayscale’s chief financial officer called a “very big deal” in an interview with Proactive.
Bitcoin is 48% higher over six months – Source: tradingview.com
Bitcoin’s exceptional start to 2024 came at the cost of short bets on the futures market, with up to $74 million in short liquidations wiped from the market so far.
Ethereum (ETH) added 3% to its spot price on Monday followed by another 1.4% this morning. At the time of writing, the ETH/USD pair was swapping for $2,384.
Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX) have shared in the early-year crypto optimism, with both altcoins jumping more than 11% overnight.
SOL’s market capitalisation is nearing the $50 billion mark, having recently flipped Binance’s BNB token as the fourth-largest crypto coin behind bitcoin, ether and the TetherUSD (USDT) stablecoin.
Global cryptocurrency market cap shot up more than 5% overnight to $1.74 trillion for the first time since April 2022.
Bitcoin dominance currently stands at 52.3%.