The value of Bitcoin crossed the $66,895 threshold for the first time in history in October.
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Bitcoin hit its highest level since April on Wednesday, as traders followed a raft of recent applications from companies, including BlackRock.
According to CoinMetrics, the price of the flagship cryptocurrency peaked at $30,749.45, its highest level since April 14. At 18:39 ET the price was $29,988.46.
Investors are increasingly optimistic about the prospects for BlackRock and other big institutional names to get involved in digital assets.
This is despite all the bad news that has been surrounding the crypto space lately, as the market is still suffering from the FTX collapse scandal and the resulting regulatory fallout.
“The numerous announcements of spot bitcoin ETF deals by major institutions have definitely brought renewed bullishness to the crypto markets,” Vijay Ayyar, head of international markets at CoinDCX, India’s largest crypto exchange, told CNBC.
“We also hit major support at $25,000 for BTC and we saw that this move was driven by pure spot buying rather than a brief liquidation move, which is pretty healthy,” Ayyar said.
“In terms of market structure in BTC, we broke a strong downtrend that started in April this year and lasted about two months. Therefore, most traders would expect us to test at least $32,000. A break of this level opens $36,000 and then $45,000 to $48,000.”
ETF Announcements
Last Thursday, BlackRock submitted an application for a spot bitcoin ETF that would track bitcoin’s underlying market price. Crypto advocates say this would give investors access to Bitcoin without having to own the underlying asset.
Coinbase is listed as the Bitcoin custodian for the proposed BlackRock ETF. BlackRock has an existing strategic partnership with Coinbase. The major U.S. crypto exchange has been going through a rough patch lately, coming under intense regulatory pressure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Following BlackRock’s announcement, numerous other asset management firms submitted their own applications for a Bitcoin ETF, including WisdomTree and Valkyrie.
Elsewhere, investors are closely watching macroeconomic indicators to see if the crypto market is moving.
To date, digital coins have been tied to movements in the broader financial markets, with Bitcoin often tracking the course of US stock markets. As such, investors have been keeping an eye on data on inflation and the state of the economy to get a sense of where Bitcoin might trade next.
“Overall, the cryptocurrency has also lagged behind traditional stock markets, so in a way this is also a bit of a catch-up move,” Ayyar said.
Correction: A previous version of this story misrepresented the timing of BlackRock’s submission of the Spot Bitcoin ETF.
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