March 4 (UPI) — Bitcoin edged closer to an all-time high Monday, as it topped $67,000.
The largest crypto asset neared its own record high of $69,000, as it rapidly approached silver’s nearly $1.4 trillion market capitalization.
“What we’re seeing today … might well be a rerun of early last week when bitcoin surged $10,000 in the space of a couple of days,” said Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of crypto exchange Nexo.
“We’re in that sort of environment when a day or two of sideways consolidation can precede explosive price action thanks to the voracious demand of these new spot ETFs.”
As bitcoin moved closer Monday to its 2021 all-time high, it also surpassed the $1.3 trillion market capitalization threshold and is now closing in on silver’s market cap of $1.4 trillion, according to CompaniesMarketCap.
The second largest crypto, Ether, also saw big gains Monday as it topped $3,600 for the first time since January 2022.
Bitcoin’s price rally helped produce strong trading for BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF, which recorded more than $2 billion in volume before Monday’s market close.
On the first day of bitcoin exchange-traded funds last month on the New York Stock Exchange, the cryptocurrency topped $1 billion in its first hour. The Security and Exchange Commission had approved 11 bitcoin ETFs on the NYSE a day earlier, on Jan. 10.
The 11 firms offering spot bitcoin ETFs are Bitwise, Grayscale, Hashed, BlackRock, Valkyrie, BZX, Invesco, VanEck, Wisdom Tree, Fidelity and Franklin.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler warned that despite the commission’s approval, it does not endorse bitcoin, which he described as “speculative” and “volatile” and tied to “illicit activity including ransomware, money laundering, sanction evasion and terrorist financing.”
“Investors should remain cautious about the myriad of risks associated with bitcoin and products whose value is tied to crypto,” Gensler said.
Grayscale chief executive officer Michael Sonnenshein applauded the approval.
“We believe that bitcoin could change the world, and we were and remain excited at the prospect of democratizing access to this asset through a U.S.-regulated investment vehicle,” Sonnenshein said in January. “The approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the United States is a monumental step forward.”
