With a gain of nearly 4% in the past 24 hours, Bitcoin’s price has surpassed $31,000 for the first time since July, extending its rise into a second week on Monday.
According to CoinGecko, at 1:16 p.m. ET, the price of Bitcoin (BTC), the largest digital currency by market capitalization, was $31,203. This is an increase of over 10% from the previous week. Also, the total value of all cryptocurrencies has grown to $1.22 trillion, a 3.7% gain over the last 24 hours.
Experts See Numerous Optimistic Signs
Multiple positive signals, say market watchers, preceded the recent increases. Pavel Kuznetsov, head of portfolio at Ryze Labs, pointed out that the GBTC discount is shrinking; the current NAV discount is -11%.
The NAV discount is a bullish indicator because it represents the growing belief that a spot Bitcoin ETF will be approved in the first quarter of 2024. Kuznetsov told The Block that the approval of a spot bitcoin ETF is a bullish catalyst that will open the door to capital inflows.
Michael Dunn, president of the Bitnomial Exchange, has said that bitcoin is becoming more like a market hedge as it de-correlates from other cryptocurrencies.
“Bitcoin’s status as digital gold and the market’s anticipation of a spot ETF approval are causing it to decouple from altcoins. Bitcoin’s outperformance relative to other cryptocurrencies is highlighted by the bitcoin dominance metric, which has been rising since the end of 2022,” Dunn told The Block.
On a day when major stock indices hit 10-month lows and the 10-year yield on Treasuries reached 5%, the digital asset surged. Pavel Kuznetsov is hesitant to declare that Bitcoin’s correlation with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq has ended.
Regulatory tailwinds and headwinds, the decisions of major independent allocators, and macro factors all have short-term effects on Bitcoin’s value as an emergent asset class.
“We’d prefer to see this over a longer time period,” Kuznetsov continued, “since it is tempting to read into short-term market changes and conclude that bitcoin is de-correlating.