Bitcoin (BTC) smashed through the 50-day moving average (MA) on Wednesday, with the bulls successfully breaking above this key resistance point that has kept spot prices compressed since late January.
The 50-day MA, which represents the average bitcoin closing price over 50 days, is often used to place sell orders, but market optimism appears to have the short-term upper hand.
The benchmark cryptocurrency added nearly 3% against the greenback by the session’s close, with the BTC/USD pair adding another 0.7% this morning.
As of 9am, bitcoin was swapping for $44,640, the strongest price in nearly a month.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is doing much of the heavy lifting in the spot markets.
Bloomberg data shows that the exchange-traded fund (ETF), approved via a landmark decision by the US regulators on 10 January, has seen over $3.2 billion of cash inflows since launch, with total volumes exceeding $7.2 billion.
Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) is also bringing in the cash with nearly $2.7 billion worth of inflows.
Large-scale outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to the tune of $6.1 billion have skewed the bitcoin ETF market, with net inflows across all 10 products totalling $1.68 billion.
Big volume day for $IBIT. Total volume over $1 billion for the group. https://t.co/Fv8G4P7cvb pic.twitter.com/EGzt431oOr
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) February 7, 2024
Elsewhere in the cryptocurrency market, Ethereum (ETH) closed the Wednesday session 2.2% higher at $2,425 where it has remained today.
Week on week, the ETH/USD pair is up 6.7% against bitcoin’s 6%.
Altcoins including BNB, Solana (SOL), Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA) and Avalanche (AVAX) have also converged around the mid-to-high single-digit growth range.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at $1.71 trillion, with bitcoin dominance at 52.8%.