Bitcoin Reaches Historical $71,000 Milestone

On March 11, Bitcoin achieved a fresh record high of $71,415, marking a 2.62% increase in the 24 hours leading up to 08:05 am UTC.

According to CoinMarketCap data, the pioneering cryptocurrency surged over 10% in the past week and 47% in the past month.

This milestone comes shortly after Ether surpassed the $4,000 mark for the first time since December 2021, just three days earlier.

Bitcoin's latest peak occurred 36 days ahead of the highly anticipated Bitcoin halving event scheduled for April 20, which will halve mining rewards from 6.25 BTC ($418,800) to 3.125 BTC ($209,400).

On March 10, Bitcoin concluded its highest-ever weekly close at $68,955, shortly after surpassing its previous record of $69,200 on March 5.

The bullish momentum of Bitcoin is largely attributed to increased institutional interest, fueled by the recent introduction of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States.

According to data from Dune, since their inception, these ETFs have accumulated 4.06% of the current Bitcoin supply, exceeding $56.9 billion in total on-chain holdings.

At this pace, ETFs are projected to absorb 8.65% of the BTC supply annually.

Last week alone, spot Bitcoin ETFs amassed a total of 33,000 BTC ($2.3 billion), despite Grayscale's GBTC fund experiencing outflows of over 10,200 BTC, as reported by HODL15 Capital.

In a March 9 investment report to investors, digital asset manager Bitwise indicated that more institutions, representing "trillions of dollars in assets," are poised to invest in spot Bitcoin ETFs by the end of June.

Meanwhile, despite reaching new highs, Bitcoin whales remain steadfast in their holdings.

As of March 9, the number of unique addresses holding at least 1,000 BTC, commonly referred to as whales, increased to 2,107 addresses.

However, this figure is still lower than the record 2,489 addresses observed in February 2021, when Bitcoin was trading above $46,000.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-breaks-new-high-above-71-000

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/

https://dune.com/hildobby/btc-etfs

https://twitter.com/HODL15Capital/status/1766337768571990281

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/addresses-greater-than-1000-btc/