After 250% rise in a year, Bitcoin scales $71,600; what lies ahead for the crypto market?

The party in the crypto market continued on Monday as Bitcoin surged another 3 per cent to scale new highs. However, other crypto tokens also joined the party but failed to scale their previous all-time highs. Top altcoins were lagging their all-times by up 85 per cent during the trading on Wednesday.

Bitcoin, the largest and the oldest crypto token, climbed about 3 per cent during the trading session on Monday, to top the $71,600 mark for the first time. The total market capitalization of Bitcoin topped the $1.4 trillion mark, with its total dominance in the crypto market increasing to 52.16 per cent.

Bitcoin tested new all-time highs on the back of growing interest in Bitcoin spot ETFs and approaching Bitcoin halving event, which has historically impacted the price of Bitcoin, said Edul Patel, CEO at Mudrex. There has been a steady rise of mainstream acceptance and investments from both retail and institutions since the Bitcoin spot ETF approval, he said.

"On the other hand, Ethereum surpassed the $4,000 level. As it is a natural phenomenon, whenever the price of Bitcoin surges most altcoins also surge. Since Ethereum is the top most token after Bitcoin, it is likely to mimic the trend of Bitcoin most of the time gaining 178 per cent. over the past one year," Patel added.

Bitcoin has delivered multibagger returns to investors, who have been holding it through the blues. The largest crypto asset has surged about 50 per cent in the last one month, while it has gained about 185 per cent in the last six months period. In the last one year, Bitcoin has rallied more than 250 per cent.

Commenting on Bitcoin ETFs, Parth Chaturvedi, Investments Lead at CoinSwitch Ventures said that Blackrock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC have accumulated more than $12 billion and $7.5 billion in AUM in just over two months. "Even though most experts were predicting such flows for the entire year of 2024, the speed of accumulation and subsequent rise were unexpected," he said.

 Around the estimated halving in April, traders can also expect heightened volatility as BTC’s price is now above its all-time high. Investors will need to be very careful and do their research while engaging with leverage, as liquidations could be triggered due to volatile movements, he said.

The fancy was seen in the altcoins was well, supported by heavy volumes. The total crypto market volume over the last 24 hours rose about 43 per cent to $132.97 billion. The global crypto market cap is rose close to 2 per cent to $2.68 trillion. Among altcoins, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Floki Agrorand, Theta Network, Litecoin, Chainlink and more rose 2-22 per cent in 24 hours.

Bitcoin has surged to a fresh record high, surpassing $71,000, marking a significant milestone in the crypto market. This notable uptrend is largely attributed to increased institutional interest, particularly in established assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, said Sumit Gupta, co-founder at CoinDCX.

The introduction of Bitcoin ETFs has been a major drive, providing a secure and accessible avenue for a diverse range of investors to participate in the crypto space. The rapid growth of BlackRock's bitcoin ETF, which has exceeded $10 billion in assets under management in a relatively short period, underscores the growing institutional adoption and its role in driving the current rally," he said.