Bitcoin soared above $45,000 on New Year's Day, the worst sight since April 2022 and echoing that year's January rollercoaster, when the price of the world's leading cryptocurrency swung above the level three times in a matter of days. Hacked by dips as low as $36,000.
Bitcoin last peaked at $45,000 on April 5, 2022, and fell as low as $15,742 on November 9, Koingeco said. The New Year's market value is more than 836 billion dollars, and the trading volume has reached 22 billion dollars.
At the time of writing, BTC is up more than 171% year-to-date, up more than 13% in the last month and up more than 5% per day. Bitcoin in 2010 2023 started below $17,000 per coin.
This year, what seems to be driving most of the upward movement is the prospect of SEC approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF. But many deadlines have come up and no formal action has been taken to provide ETFs in place of any pending applications. Could 2024 finally be the year? And will the price of bitcoin jump or fall?
Big round numbers like $45,000 have no particular meaning except to represent psychological hurdles for investors. Reaching out together increases confidence, which prompts more trading, and can then create a flywheel effect—at least, that's what Bitcoin owners hope.
In the bigger picture, that means bitcoin is about to eclipse the highs it saw last year when it started the year just shy of $50,000. BTC essentially stayed above $40,000 for a few months, but algorithmically stable coin TerraUSD fell off a cliff, triggering a wave of liquidity and losses.
As the world's largest and oldest cryptocurrency continues its rally, its overall value will balloon in market capitalization. Bitcoin recently surpassed Elon Musk's Tesla in market cap at $855 billion, after passing the $750 billion mark, according to CompaniesMarketCap. Now, with a market value of $774 billion, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. And MetaPlatform (formerly known as Facebook) was capped at $815 billion.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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