Bitcoin (BTC) closed above the $48,000 barrier for the second time in 23 months on Sunday, marking a return to form for the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
The BTC/USD pair continued to rocket higher today, and was within touching distance of $49,000 in mid-afternoon trades.
Bitcoin is now up nearly 15% week on week, a sharp u-turn from its surprisingly poor post-ETF approval performance.
One month after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave the nod to bitcoin-linked exchange-traded funds, the spot markets finally appear to be moving in the anticipated direction.
Ark Invest’s ARKB ETF became the latest bitcoin ETF to net more than $1 billion in assets under management, joining BlackRock’s iShare Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
$ARKB has crossed $1B+ USD in bitcoin holdings! This isn't just a number – it's a testament to the growing trust and interest in digital assets.
Thank you to our community for being part of this journey, as we continue to redefine financial
horizons.
????Learn more about ARKB:… pic.twitter.com/wWRLyNOGtG
— 21Shares US (@21shares_us) February 9, 2024
Though GBTC’s substantial outflows (over $6.3 billion per the latest data) have skewed the numbers, net inflows into the bitcoin ETF market currently exceed $2.2 billion, creating buying momentum on the spot markets.
GBTC outflows do seems to be falling.
Speaking on the matter, Matteo Greco, research analyst at Fineqia International Inc (CSE:FNQ, OTC:FNQQF), stated: "The daily outflow from GBTC during the two initial weeks post-approval averaged around $500 million. However, in the past week, total outflows from GBTC amounted to approximately $415 million, translating to a daily average of about $83 million.
"This represents nearly an 85% reduction in outflows compared to the first two weeks of trading.
As for the wider bticoin ETF market, Greco observed: "Trading volumes remain exceptionally high, with a cumulative volume of about $5.5 billion recorded in the past week, equating to a daily trading volume of approximately $1.1 billion.
"Since their inception, cumulative trading volumes have reached $35.6 billion, with an average daily trading volume of around $1.7 billion."
Bitcoin dominance – a measure of its share of the global cryptocurrency market capitalisation – has surged higher as well, measuring 54%, up from 52.5% this time last week.
Though the second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) also had a bullish weekend before adding 0.85% to hit $2,528 this afternoon.
Week on week, the ETH/USD pair is up a little over 10%.
In the wider altcoin space, Avalanche (AVAX) and Solana (SOL) have also added low-double-digit gains gains over the past seven days, while BNB, Ripple (XRP) and Cardano have stuck to the mid-single-digit range.
The Dogecoin (DOGE) memecoin has underperformed, adding just 1%.