Bloomberg: Bitcoin Topped $45,000 for First Time in Nearly Two Year

[pawel7777]

First major press hit of 2024? Could be. Bloomberg is reporting on the recent price rise, linking it to the approval of spot ETFs and the impending deadline for approval of 10th January. The author also touches on ETH and Solana.

Bitcoin Topped $45,000 for First Time in Nearly Two Years
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-02/bitcoin-soars-to-highest-level-in-21-months-on-etf-approval-hope

Bitcoin surpassed $45,000 for the first time in nearly two years as anticipation of an approval of an exchange-traded fund investing directly in the biggest token intensified.

The cryptocurrency jumped as much as 5.2% to its highest level since April 2022 and traded at $45,063 as of 3 p.m. New York time. Other tokens were mixed with Ether, the second biggest, rising as much as 4.1%, and recent high-flyer Solana down 2.2%.

Bitcoin has jumped almost 20% since the start of December as a Jan. 10 deadline for the US Securities and Exchange Commission to give its blessing for a spot ETF Bitcoin draws closer.

“The markets are continuing to rally on strong belief that a Bitcoin ETF will soon be allowed to come to market in the US,” said Darius Tabatabai, co-founder of decentralized exchange Vertex Protocol. “Typically, such an event is a buy-the-rumor, sell-the-news type of thing, and this appears to be no exception.”



‘Nerves of Steel’
Options traders had been betting on Bitcoin hitting $50,000, riding on the spot ETF optimism.

A major correction is unlikely given the broader bullish sentiment and the upcoming halving, said Cici Lu McCalman, founder of blockchain adviser Venn Link Partners, referring to a process that cuts the quantity of Bitcoin that miners receive per block reward in half. “I think traders would need nerves of steel to short BTC,” she said.

The halving – sometimes referred to as halvening – is planned for April and happens once every four years or so. The coin hit records after each of the last three halvings.

Bitcoin’s near 160% rebound last year partially repaired some of the damage caused by a precipitous 2022 crash that reverberated around the crypto industry. The token outperformed global stocks and gold over the period but remains below its 2021 pandemic-era record of almost $69,000.

Shares of so-called crypto companies were also mixed. Bitcoin proxy MicroStrategy rose about 87%, while miner Marathon Digital declined 2.3% and crypto exchange Coinbase Global fell 9.5%.