- Bitcoin traded above $60,000 on Wednesday, its highest point in over two years.
- The digital asset is now only about $10,000, or about 13%, from its record high set in November 2021.
- It has already made all-time highs against other major currencies as crypto adoption grows outside the US.
Bitcoin traded above $60,000 for the first time since November 2021 on Wednesday, as euphoria gripped crypto markets.
The world’s top cryptocurrency is edging closer to its record $69,000, and is just around 13% away from its all-time high set in November 2021.
‘Hard to predict where we stop’
Bitcoin rallied over 7% in the past 24 hours, and the digital asset is in a “price discovery phase,” according Galaxy Digital founder Mike Novogratz.
The leading digital asset by market capitalisation has gained over 18% in the past seven days. The rise follows the successful launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the US.
Bitcoin ETFs in the US make the asset available to a much larger swathe of investors than ever before. That makes this discovery phase different, Novogratz said in a post on X.
Price discovery is the process of figuring out an assets market value through interactions between buyers and sellers, or how much people are willing to buy and sell for.
Bitcoin’s latest discovery phase might really be its first, Novogratz said. For the first time since it became an asset, now the “bulk of US wealth has easy access.”
“Hard to predict where we stop,” Novogratz said.
$BTC is in price discovery phase. Maybe really for the first time since it’s been an asset as now the bulk of US wealth has easy access. Hard to predict where we stop.
— Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) February 28, 2024
New all-time highs around the world
Bitcoin has already reached record highs versus several global currencies this week.
The cryptocurrency has recently been reaching all-time highs against a variety of government-issued currencies — including some heavyweights like the Japanese yen, the third most traded currency in the world.
Bitcoin is now trading 16% higher than its prior ¥7,800,000 peak against the yen, TradingView shows.
It has also made new all-time highs against the Chinese renminbi, the Russian ruble, the Swedish krona, and the New Zealand dollar.
“We normally think of Bitcoin’s price in USD terms,” Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik posted on X on February 12. “But most of the world uses other currencies. Expect new Bitcoin all-time highs against all fiat currencies this year.”
Bitcoin is also rapidly approaching its previous all-time highs in the remaining major currencies. It’s only 8% away from its 2021 peak against the euro and the British pound, 5% against the Canadian dollar, and 3% against the Australian dollar.
The US dollar index, which measures the power of the dollar against a basket of six currencies — the euro, the yen, the pound, the Canadian dollar, the krona, and the Swiss franc — bottomed in June 2021, only five months before Bitcoin reached its all-time high.
The US dollar then gained 28% against that basket of currencies in the following 16 months.
Crypto market movers
- Bitcoin is up 7% in the last 24 hours to trade over $60,000.
- Ethereum traded around $3,350, up 3% since Tuesday.
What we’re reading
- Worldcoin’s 230% surge draws droves to eye-scanning orbs — ‘It’s free money’ — DL News
- MicroStrategy Price Target Set At $990 On Bitcoin Growth Forecast — Milk Road
- Stacks’ Muneeb Ali On Why Bitcoin Is Exciting Once Again — Unchained
- Sam Bankman-Fried Continues Legal Fight, Hires Ex-Trump Lawyer — Milk Road
- Inside the trial to prove Craig Wright’s claim he invented Bitcoin is a ‘lie’ — DL News
Adam Morgan McCarthy is a market correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at adam@dlnews.com.
