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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) broke past $50,000 for the first time since late 2021 as spot BTC ETFs continue to see strong inflows, while there are signs that institutional interest in the cryptocurrency market has renewed.
The top crypto climbed 4.1% to $50,083 as of 4.07 am ET, while Ether (ETH-USD) traded 6.9% higher at $2,662. To note, bitcoin (BTC-USD) has gained about 18% this year, but remains well below the $69,000 peak it reached in November 2021.
“Even though FTX, Luna, Celsius, and BlockFi went down in 2022, it didn’t change anything on the fundamentals of bitcoin (BTC-USD),” said Michaël van de Poppe, CEO, MN Trading Consultancy. “It’s hard, sovereign money, with recognition by big institutions. The robust recovery in the past 24 months shows this.”
Spot BTC ETFs saw net inflows of $1.1B last week, according to CoinShares, bringing inflows since the January 11 launch to $2.8B. Meanwhile, outflows from Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) continued to slow down.
With the success of spot BTC ETFs, Wall Street firms are now increasingly filing for spot ethereum ETFs, the latest being Franklin Templeton. Other applicants include Van Eck, ARK, BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale.
While the industry expects the SEC’s approval for spot ETH ETFs by May, J.P. Morgan previously said the odds for this are no more than 50%.
Meanwhile, in a sign of renewed institutional interest, billionaire Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm Founders Fund invested $200M to acquire bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ether (ETH-USD) last year, Reuters reported. The firm started buying BTC aggressively in 2014, but sold off its holdings before the 2022 crypto market crash.