The Year in Bitcoin: From ETF to All-Time High

It was a year unlike any other. Bitcoinfrom new technological developments and historic achievements to finding a home on Wall Street and being used as a political football in US elections.

Here's a look back at the year for the world's biggest crypto.

Bitcoin ETFs, a decade in waiting

The Securities and Exchange Commission has spent a decade saying “no” to top asset managers who wanted to offer Bitcoin exchange-traded funds — the once-obscure Bitcoin ETF — to clients in the United States. But that mood changed when the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, filed with the SEC in June 2023 to launch its own Bitcoin ETF.

An ETF is an investment vehicle that gives buyers exposure to real estate without directly buying or holding the real estate. Gold ETFs, for example, have been a thing for a long time, and offer investors the convenience of investing in gold without the hassle of having to physically hold physical bars or coins.

But the SEC was wary of allowing such a thing for Bitcoin, repeatedly rejecting applications on the grounds that the kriptovalyutnyh market can be easily manipulated.

Industry analysts thought BlackRock jumping in and lending its weight was what finally forced the regulator to give the green light. And it turns out it was. On January 10, SEC approved Bitcoin ETFs with 10 trading next day. The US market finally had a way for mom-and-pop retail investors to put small amounts of money into Bitcoin without having to worry about cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets, and pedigrees. It was huge — and had a bigger impact than even the most optimistic Bitcoin fans imagined.

All time high

No one – not even those whose job it is to analyze the ETF market – expected such an outcry after trading began. The money beats the money fast. Investors who were previously locked out of the world of crypto investing can suddenly buy shares on stock exchanges that track the price of bitcoin.

The asset rose above $73,000 in March, according to CoinGecko data.

But it was not an easy journey. Many macroeconomic factors – not to mention government raids and large crypto movements – have weighed on Bitcoin throughout the year.

Despite reaching a new all-time high in March, the next few months were turbulent for Bitcoin as geopolitical concerns – particularly in the Middle East – caused investors to move away from risk assets.

At one point, Bitcoin struggled to break above $60,000 due to tensions between Iran and Israel and missile attacks.

At this time, the German government imposed additional sales pressure It has been sold In June, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins were confiscated.

Then, in September, it finally happened: The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 basis points.In the year It is the first time the central bank has seen such a rate cut since it announced a significant rate hike in 2022. The central bank has raised interest rates to tackle inflation since the pandemic.

High interest rates generally cause investors to take “risk aversions”, retreat from stocks and other risky assets like crypto, and flee to the relative safety of the US dollar.

September cut and Subsequent cutting In the year In November, the property again became more attractive to investors, which led to an increase in prices. The “risk on risk” trade is back, and has helped push crypto assets to higher levels above Bitcoin.

The following month, Bitcoin did what crypto optimists had been predicting for years: the asset went bust $100,000 mark After Donald Trump was elected US president in early December, for the first time in its 15-year history, investors expect a more relaxed regulatory environment for digital assets.

Institutions and politics

A big reason for the increase in the price of Bitcoin was due to two things: institutions and politics.

In the year On November 5, Trump stunned onlookers by sweeping the Electoral College and the popular vote. The Republican candidate has campaigned as a Bitcoin-friendly US leader.

“I am laying out my plan to make the United States the capital of the planet,” Trump said. he said. At the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville in July, he promised to make the country a “Bitcoin superpower” if elected.

Analysts and industry watchers had predicted that Trump's victory would boost the leading digital asset. Their prediction proved correct; Shortly after he was announced as the next President of the United States, the price of Bitcoin increased.

Less than a month after his win, Bitcoin hit $103,679.

Conditions, at least in theory, are favorable for assets to grow as the US now has the most pro-crypto Congress in its history, including Vice President-elect JD Vance, who is pro-digital assets and holds a significant amount of bitcoin.

They have Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the next US Secretary of Health and Human Services They spoke How Bitcoin Should Back Dollars And National Security Adviser Michael Waltz Votes For Pro-Crypto Bills.

Many other Republicans and Trump-supporters also support a pro-crypto policy. All eyes now a Systematic Bitcoin backupthe US government plans to hold billions of bitcoins on its books for years; It will be approved when Trump takes office in January.

The adoption of spot ETFs has opened the door to traditional finance in a big way Goldman Sachs And Morgan Stanley Investing in cryptocurrency through vehicles.

According to Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy, 2024 is “year zero of institutional adoption.

Companies buy bitcoin

Speaking of Saylor, the Bitcoin evangelist firm has aggressively snapped up Bitcoin in 2024—accelerating its purchases by the end of the year.

The software company's stock soared to record highs and its co-founder continued to beat the Bitcoin drum, talking extensively about how the cryptocurrency could save the company.

The billionaire—whose company holds 444,462 bitcoins, valued at around $42 billion at the time of writing—has even shared his Bitcoin adoption strategy with Microsoft's board of directors. The company decided not to buy Bitcoin – although it admitted that it was thinking about it.

However, other small companies such as Japan MetaPlanet And American public companies like Semler Scientific And The health of the cosmos He bought the property as inflation.

The middle happened

But it was more than ETFs and institutional adoption that helped bring attention to Bitcoin in 2024.

The event, which is baked into Bitcoin's code, happens every four years and is designed to control Bitcoin's rate of inflation. After each halving, the reward for successfully extracting a Bitcoin block is halved, which means that now less Bitcoin enters the system. This will continue until the mining reward is completely depleted and Bitcoin reaches a fixed supply of 21 million coins.

But this half was different from before, as Investors He was focused on it More than ever. why? Again, time. The rise in adoption and success of Bitcoin ETFs has led further. People to speculate that the event will increase the value of the property. After all, less supply and more demand should lead to higher prices.

And while the event was somewhat dull, the coin, for the first time, hit a new all-time high even before it halved in April.

Runes were the thing

This half also brought something else: a short-lived new technical development on the Bitcoin network. Runes.

Cassie Rodermore, the man behind Standard Texts – launched last year – created a new standard for creating tokens on the Runes blockchain. The Runes protocol started when Bitcoin halved and became popular for a while, while dog-themed meme coins started to gain traction on the network and Increase in value.

However, some members of the community were unhappy with what Runes mania did to the largest and oldest crypto network: transaction fees. He was elevated. When there was a lot of activity on the blockchain to issue the new tokens.

However, even if this was just an annoying madness in the eyes of some, the launch proved that Bitcoin has more use cases to offer than just holding and hoping “the number will increase.”

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair