The flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin ($BTC) is heading for its fifth month of gains in a row, the longest run since the pandemic-driven rally boosted by stimulus checks.
The cryptocurrency gained about 2% in January, a month in which the US launched its first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the outlook for monetary policy shifted as analysts started pointing to interest rates staying higher for longer than expected.
If Bitcoin keeps rising, it would reach its highest streak of monthly gains since its pandemic-era rally between October 2020 to March 2021, before it reached its peak of nearly $69,000 in November 2021.
Bitcoin plunged 21% in 12 the days following the debut of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US this month, while GBTC faced massive outflows after its ETF conversion. The outflow rate has slowed down as BlackRock and Fidelity’s ETFs keep on attracting new investment.
The spot Bitcoin ETFs had the best launch ever for these funds, based on both trading and flow data. Notably, according to on-chain analytics firm Santiment, since September the stablecoin market has been growing and whales have been steadily accumulating.
This accumulation has seen whales with over $5 million now control over half of the total stablecoin supply, with a large percentage of it being seen moving to cryptocurrency trading platforms.
Santiment says holders of the third-largest crypto by market cap USDT are sending their dollar-pegged digital assets to exchanges, with these inflows suggesting they’re gearing up to buy into the market in a move that could help drive prices up. Per the firm nearly 4% of USDT’s supply has moved back to cryptocurrency exchanges.
Featured image via Unsplash.
