Bitcoin at $63,000: Chance of a new all-time high lures retail investors back
There is literally “extreme greed” in the crypto market: after Bitcoin’s recent rise to $63,000, the Fear & Greed Index, a measure of the mood, has swung to “extreme greed”. This means that the fears of price losses have disappeared, and the industry and its investors are now looking forward to the next major event, the Bitcoin Halving in mid-April. The market is clearly in positive territory, which leads to FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
The big 9 percent increase in 24 hours for Bitcoin (21% last week) has also boosted many altcoins. Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and Toncoin (TON) also grew strongly, but in particular, the two meme coins Dogecoin (DOGE) and SHIBA INU gained a pretty crazy 30 percent in 24 hours. The latter is also a sign that gamblers are coming back into the market, which has so far been driven primarily by institutional investors via Bitcoin spot ETFs.
BTC’s previous all-time high dates back to November 2021, when crypto gold peaked at $68,789. On Thursday morning, Bitcoin was only 9 percent below this record.
Trading volumes on crypto exchanges are exploding
A look at the trading volumes on the major exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and Co shows that small investors are trading more again. On Thursday night, the trading volume climbed to more than $200 billion on a daily average for the first time since November 2022 – previously these values were significantly lower, at $100 billion or less. This also shows that a wider audience is once again busy trading cryptocurrencies.
So far it has been shown that the so-called retail investors have been rather cautious. Many have burned their fingers in recent years due to scandals such as FTX, Terra/LUNA, and numerous bankruptcies and have sometimes gambled away a lot of money. But now you can see that the mood is getting much better again:
Bitpanda CEO: “Chance of a new all-time high”
“Bitcoin surpassed $60,000 today for the first time in a long time. The real news here is that there is a chance for a new all-time high this year. Why? The factors driving price today are very different than those in 2021 and I do not expect them to change. Simply put, demand from retail and institutional investors is increasing as trust and secure access to digital assets increases, especially from the institutional side in the US with the recently approved Bitcoin spot ETFs,” comments Bitpanda CEO Eric Demuth Market situation. “There is no hype, no price spiral, just a fundamental increase in demand and a clear regulatory framework that comes with MiCA in the EU, which encourages price increases.”
He adds further: “The crypto market has now become somewhat connected to the traditional financial market and follows similar cycles. This means that key interest rates are expected to continue falling and a positive macroeconomic outlook could not only benefit the stock market, but also the crypto market. It is also expected that the upcoming Bitcoin halving in April could lead to a further increase in the Bitcoin price. Because historical data shows that each of the past halvings has led to a significant price jump in the long term.”
