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Crypto prices rose Thursday as bitcoin and ether headed for their strongest month in more than three years.
Bitcoin was last higher by more than 1% at $61,150.88 on the final day of February, according to Coin Metrics. On Wednesday, it surged to $64,000 at one point, before a wave of long liquidations triggered a pullback to about $60,000. Ether advanced 3% to $3,382.43 on Thursday.
The two coins shot higher in February after finishing January flat. Bitcoin is now up 42% for the month, marking its sixth-straight month of gains — its best showing since December 2020. Ether has advanced more than 47%, also heading for its sixth up month in a row and its best month since July 2022.
Bitcoin YTD
The month was a triumph for bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which saw a record $677 million in daily net inflows on Wednesday alone for the third day in a row of inflows above $500 million. Initially, outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF (GBTC), which had a head start on its rivals from when it operated as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, had weighed on the bitcoin price. Those outflows have now diminished.
Investors attribute February’s explosive gains to bitcoin’s supply and demand dynamics. Sylvia Jablonski, CEO and chief investment officer at Defiance ETFs, pointed specifically to the new ETFs and the upcoming bitcoin halving.
“We’ve seen over $2 billion coming into the various bitcoin ETFs so there’s been this need to access more supply of bitcoin to build these ETFs and that ends up driving prices up particularly in the near term,” she said.
“The second reason why you might be getting some extra momentum in the price over the last couple of days is the upcoming halving,” she added. “Historically, the halving has led to bitcoin prices increasing … past performance is not indicative of future performance, but I do think there’s this belief that the halving process will result in the same level of price appreciation.”
The halving is a mandate in the bitcoin code to cut the reward mining bitcoin in half to reduce the supply of bitcoin every few years and create a scarcity effect. The next one is expected this April.
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