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Bitcoin has finally climbed past $31,000, the highest in over a year. It was not doing well for most of the latter half of 2022 and 2023. Therefore, a climb of this magnitude is welcomed by its investors. According to CoinMarketCap data, Bitcoin is already up by a whopping 81% since the start of the year.
It hit $30,000 for the first time on June 24, 2023. However, it is still way off the peak of $68,789.63 that it experienced in November 2021. The last time the cryptocurrency traded at around the same value was on June 8, 2020.
Almost all the crypto markets suffered in late 2023, pushed by worsening economic conditions around the world. However, since the start of the year, there has been renewed interest in cryptocurrencies, which has seen many popular ones do better in the months that followed.
The rise in value continued despite increased institutional crackdowns on Bitcoin exchanges across the US. The latest was the lawsuit against Binance and Coinbase by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Apparently, the commission accuses Binance of operating an illegal exchange. It was also alleged that some of the user cash was diverted into another trading entity owned by its CEO, Changpeng Zhao.
For Coinbase, the SEC claimed that their entity was trading in assets as an unregistered national security exchange and was doing brokerage deals. With these being some of the most popular exchanges in the market today, the lawsuit rattled the industry and some analysts had expected that it would shake up the industry. However, this did not happen.
Out there, Bitcoin exchanges and use volumes have gone up incredibly. More people are using it and other coins for their transactions. NZCasinoClub.com has seen an increase in the number of people using cryptos in casino gaming and purchasing items on the internet and at the local merchant store. This has had the effect of increasing the volume, which in turn enhances the interest in the coin.
BlackRock has filed another application to have a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund with the SEC. The firm had made another attempt at it, but the SEC rejected it. The ishares unit of the fund management giant is said to have filed paperwork on June 22, 2023, to form the spot Bitcoin ETF.
If the application goes through, the fund will be called iShares Bitcoin Trust. Its assets will be held in Bitcoin by a custodian who will do it on behalf of the trust. It has already nominated the custodian as the crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN).
The SEC has approved several future-based Bitcoin ETFs. However, it has been firmly rejecting any other fund management company from creating a spot Bitcoin ETF. Other applications of the same nature that it has rejected include those of WisdomTree, Grayscale and VanEck. The move by BlackRock has spurred interest in cryptocurrencies and partially led to their increase in value.
At the same time, the lawsuits that the SEC filed against Coinbase and Binance caused a drop in Altcoins. Among the Altcoins that faced a significant drop over the period was Polygon’s MATIC. The coin moved down a whopping 19% for a whole week despite having risen a week earlier.
Another coin that faced a loss was Avalanche’s AVAX. This coin suffered a 17% decrease. Lastly, Ether from Solana was down by 15%. However, these drops were temporary, and they are expected to rise soon, just like in the case with Bitcoin.
The use case of Bitcoin was making progress across major financial institutions. For example, JPMorgan expanded its blockchain-based token to make euro payments. According to different market analysts, now that Bitcoin is hovering around $30,000, it is only a matter of time before it starts moving to $40,000. Organizations such as JPMorgan seek to take advantage of this interest and make some cash in the process.
Second, these organizations are also closely following the case against Binace and Coinbase to know the outcome. They are doubling down on their crypto securities with the hope that they may gain from the apparent speculation in the market about these two providers. This is yet to be seen.
Analysts expect Bitcoin to experience relative growth in prices throughout the year. It may experience some downturns in a few weeks. However, it will enjoy a relative increase past the $30,000 mark. Speculative buys are on the increase, with most investors looking to cash in when the prices finally continue to move. Other altcoins are also likely to follow suit with significant increases in price. So, the market is finally looking bright again.
However, it may be long before prices hit anything close to the $50,000 mark. This is because, despite the increased interest in the market, there are still fears that the market is becoming too heavily regulated and that law enforcers are favoring institutional players over traditional crypto service providers. However, the market is in a speculative mood, and it will be interesting to see what happens next.