Moreover, the total crypto market cap is now worth more than all the silver in the world.
After a 4.7% rally for the five days ending Sunday, Bitcoin price is humming right along at the $37,100 level. The world’s original cryptocurrency is trading 38% higher than six months ago. But it’s up even more YTD, with an astounding 123% gain over an average exchange price of $16,600 on January 1.
With the Bitcoin market cap in excess of $725 billion, the leading cryptocurrency is now capitalized at 55% of the value of all the silver in the world at today’s spot prices. Furthermore, the total crypto market cap swelling past $1.47 trillion has overtaken the global silver market cap estimated at $1.255 trillion.
Here are three big reasons for Bitcoin’s energetic surge into a cryptocurrency spring.
Bitcoin’s Deflationary Halving in April
Bitcoin is a deflationary currency.
The seminal cryptocurrency was intentionally designed that way when it was first revealed on Oct 31, 2008. The US dollar has an adjustable rate of inflation. Bitcoin has a fixed rate of deflation.
Every previous halving has resulted in an extended bull market lasting for several months afterward. That will likely continue this year’s growth in Bitcoin market cap until it overtakes silver all on its own as it did during the bull run in 2021 two years ago.
SEC Likely to Approve a Spot Bitcoin ETF
New Research note from me today. We still believe 90% chance by Jan 10 for spot #Bitcoin ETF approvals. But if it comes earlier we are entering a window where a wave of approval orders for all the current applicants *COULD* occur pic.twitter.com/u6dBva1ytD
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) November 8, 2023
Markets are looking forward to an SEC approval of one or more spot Bitcoin ETF applications. A false start on the news in mid-October sent Bitcoin price flying, and it shows no signs of slowing.
A recent court decision makes it all but inevitable. It seems that it’s just a matter of time. Many analysts, including those on Wall Street, expect an approval soon.
Bitcoin ETF application watchers at BlackRock expect an SEC approval by January 2024. A Bloomberg ETF analyst believes it could happen any day now.
Soaring Institutional Interest in Bitcoin
Bitcoin’s last halving was in May 2020. Four years later, institutions are into Bitcoin like never before. They’ve been increasing their holdings and adding to the Bitcoin market cap as this halving cycle wraps up.
Back in April, a senior Bloomberg analyst outlined a path to $400,000 for Bitcoin price based on institutional adoption. In July, a Binance Research survey found over 60% of institutional investors had a bullish outlook for the world’s leading digital hash cash asset.
So far, these expectations haven’t been far off. According to FalconX research with CoinMetrics data, futures open interest in cryptocurrency is back. Bitcoin and Ethereum OI together is above $20 billion in November for the first time since the FTX collapse in 2022.
Meanwhile, CoinShares chief strategy officer Meltem Demirors recently said on CNBC that “we have seen six weeks of consecutive” inflows into Bitcoin.
“We’re now at $760 million of flows into Bitcoin products in 2023. We have exceeded the levels in 2022,” Demirors added.
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