Bitcoin (BTC) is on a roll.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has just become the seventh-largest asset by market cap on the planet, overtaking oil giant Saudi Aramco. Its dominance over the crypto industry set a high of 61.38% and the price hit a record of over $93,000 on Wednesday.
A large part of the recent success is due to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance during the election campaign. As of today, the Republicans won the House, completing the trifecta and boding well for cryptocurrency prices due to favorable regulation.
Another part of BTC’s success comes from the massive inflows into U.S. spot-listed exchange-traded funds (ETF). In the past six trading days, bitcoin ETFs have seen a whopping $4.7 billion of net inflows, including more than $510.1 million on Wednesday alone. This brings the total since their introduction in January to $28.2 billion, according to Farside data.
Since the launch, there have been questions raised about whether they were part of the basis trade or net long positions. But as the year has progressed, it seems investors are moving away from the basis trade, which is a net neutral strategy that is becoming a smaller trade over time.
Analyst Checkmate supports the argument that the majority of the demand is coming from the ETFs.
“The Bitcoin ETFs are by far the majority driving force of bitcoin demand right now, soaking up almost all of the selling by Long-Term Holders. CME open interest is not growing meaningfully, reinforcing that this is a spot-driven rally,” they said in a post on X.
BlackRock’s iShare Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) continues to hit record after record in trading volume, touching $5 billion for the first time, according to Eric Balchunas, a senior analyst at Bloomberg.
“I thought things were cooling off, but no, IBIT just saw $5b in volume today for first time ever. Only 3 ETFs and 8 stocks saw more action today. Up to $13b in 3 days this week. Its peers seeing heightened volume too but smaller scale. FBTC did $1b, biggest day since March”, Balchunas said.
The Ethereum blockchain’s ether (ETH) is also seeing renewed interest in U.S. spot-listed products, with a further $146.9 million inflow on Nov. 14, taking the total net inflow to $241.7 million, according to Farside data.
