The Bitcoin price is rising!
The price of cryptocurrency protagonist Bitcoin (BTC) has recently hit the $20,000 milestone, marking a new consecutive day record. According to Coinmarketcap, on December 16th, the Bitcoin price first reached $20,000, climbing to $24,085 on the 19th. As of early Christmas morning, Bitcoin is trading at $24,375 after reaching a high of $24,722 a short while ago. BTC currently has a total market cap of $455.4bn.
But the spotlight is also on Ethereum (ETH), the no. 2 cryptocurrency by market capitalization. According to data published by blockchain data analysis firm Glassnode on December 8th at 11am, there were 1,178,174 wallets holding at least 1 ETH, marking an all-time record. This is a roughly 17% increase over January, when the figure stood at 972,924.
Ripple’s XRP has surged more than 44% in the past 24 hours.
As governments around the world are pouring out money to stabilize the economy shaken by COVID-19 and as low interest rates are persisting, cryptocurrency is also receiving attention from institutions and other investors searching for a destination to invest their ample capital. Data published on the 17th by Bitcoin Treasuries shows that a total of 23 listed and private companies worldwide, including NASDAQ-listed MicroStrategy and Square, held a total of $17.1bn worth of Bitcoin. This represents 4.47% of the total Bitcoin volume in circulation.
The number of Bitcoin fund participants is increasing
Buoyed by the bull market in crypto, the capital flowing into cryptocurrency funds is also increasing.
According to a report by Reuters published on the 7th, the assets under management (AuM) of British cryptocurrency asset management firm CoinShares reached a record high driven by institutional investors. Institutional investors invested $429m, the second-highest figure ever, raising the total AuM to $15bn. This represents an over six-fold increase over the $2.57bn recorded at the end of 2019.
The total AuM of US cryptocurrency asset management firm Grayscale, fueled by an influx of institutional investors and rising cryptocurrency prices, surpassed $15bn on the 17th. Grayscale Capital’s flagship cryptocurrency fund Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) surged by 40% over the previous month, trading at $28.25.
2020 will certainly go down as the year that the Grinch used covid-19 as the means to bring ample aggravation to the global Whoville residents, but Santa would have none of it and brought ample Christmas cheer to all the good little boys and girls HODLing cryptocurrencies!
