The value of bitcoin
surpassed $50,000 on Monday for the first time in more than two years
on expectations of interest
rate cuts
this year and last month's regulatory approval of US exchange-traded funds (ETFs) designed to continue their price, which is expected
to increase exchanges and demand.
Since January 22, the most popular cryptocurrency
has appreciated 25%
and reached $50,328, according to Bloomberg data, which is its highest level since the end of 2021. It then fell slightly to $49,950.
In any case, the currency is still
far from its record value of US$68,789 in November 2021,
but this progress marks a
recovery after a series of scandals
that shook the cryptocurrency industry.
Bitcoin has recovered all its losses since the implosion of the TerraUSD
stablecoin
in May 2022, which set in motion a wave of scandals in the sector.
The most notable was the
collapse of FTX
, the second largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, and the arrest of its co-founder
Sam Bankman-Fried
, who faces up to 110 years in prison, for what the prosecution describes as
"one of the largest financial frauds in the history of the United States.
In November,
Changpeng "CZ" Zhao
resigned as CEO of
Binance
, the largest crypto exchange, after acknowledging that he and the company
had violated US anti-money laundering laws.
Now the manager awaits sentencing.
“$50,000 is a significant milestone for bitcoin after the launch of spot ETFs last month not only failed to move above the key psychological level but led to a 20% drop,” said Antoni Trenchev. , co-founder of the cryptocurrency lending platform Nexo, to the Reuters agency.
Nine bitcoin funds began trading in the US
on January 11 and have so far attracted more than
$9 billion
in investments.
Two of the offerings,
from BlackRock and Fidelity Investments,
appear as the most successful ETFs ever launched based on assets obtained after one month on the market, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst survey.
There are signs of a “
growing movement of institutional money into this asset class
,” Caroline Bowler, CEO of cryptocurrency platform BTC Markets Pty, told Bloomberg.
The more than decade-old Grayscale Bitcoin Trust
fund
is the largest portfolio dedicated to the token and converted to an ETF on the same day the new funds launched.
Optimism surrounding
bitcoin's quadrennial halving, scheduled for April, is also spreading to all cryptocurrencies
.
Halving reduces the amount of bitcoins miners receive for operating the powerful computers that verify transactions on the blockchain.
Analysts believe that the
rate cut
expected from the Federal Reserve this year,
plus the halving that will generate a shortage
of the asset, plus new investments in ETFs from institutional funds are creating a new context for the resurgence of bitcoin.
NE