Bitcoin Sits Atop $70K; Hopes Of ETF Inflow Fuel Rally
By Laxmikant Khanvilkar
Virtual digital assets (VDA) have started the holiday-shortened week on a strong note and Bitcoin (BTC) emerged as one bright spot amid gloom in risky assets.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation has managed to reclaim $70,000 mark as bulls squeezed intensely higher, adding nearly $3000 today and $7000 since Friday’s close, leading to some hefty gains for ETF owners. BTC surpassed that level for the first time in 10 days. It was recently trading at $69,900 up 5% in the past 24-hours.
It hasn’t been just BTC as ethereum also put up a strong rally in what’s often a positive sign for risk assets. US dollar drifting lower after the February new home sales data and ahead of PCE, Fed officials speech extended helping hand to the cryptocurrency market.
Ethereum (Ether), the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, scaled back to $3,500 level. It recently exchanged hands at $3,596 gaining 5%.
Elsewhere, tokens for major layer-1 blockchains Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX) advanced more than 10%.
The global crypto market cap increased 4.2% to $2.64 trillion in the last 24 hours. Simultaneously, the total crypto market volume rose 47% to $110 billion. Total volume in DeFi is currently $10.7 billion, and all stablecoins are $98 billion, representing 9.7% and 89%, respectively, of the total crypto market 24-hour volume. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 52%, up 0.2% over the day.
The IC15 index, the barometer of the top fifteen tokens, surged 4.9% to 89,930.
Meanwhile, the resurgence triggered liquidation worth $195 million of leveraged derivatives positions across all crypto assets, some $129 million of them being short positions seeking to profit from lower prices, CoinGlass data shows. Bitcoin short liquidations reached $53 million, less than the average daily figure of the recent period.
In other news, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) said it will start a marketplace for bitcoin and ether exchange-traded notes (ETNs).
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking fines of about $2 billion from Ripple Labs over its allegedly unlawful sales of the cryptocurrency XRP, the firm’s chief legal officer said on Monday.
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