Bitcoin rockets to record high as investors cheer ETFs, rate prospects

LONDON/SINGAPORE: Bitcoin soared to a new record high on Tuesday (Mar 5), fueled by investors pouring money into US spot exchange-traded crypto products and the prospect that global interest rates may fall.

The world's largest cryptocurrency hit a high of US$69,202, topping November 2021's all-time peak of US$68,999.99. Investor interest has increased since the Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 spot bitcoin ETFs in late January. It then traded lower and was last at US$66,892.

“The bitcoin all-time high marks a turning point for crypto," said Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder of crypto platform Anchorage Digital. "Traditional institutions were once sitting out; today, they are here in full force as the principal drivers of the crypto bull market."

Bitcoin's meteoric nearly 160 per cent ascent since October, of which 44 per cent came in February alone, marks a sharp contrast to 2022, when the market was beaten into an 18-month-long crypto winter, plagued by a string of high-profile corporate bankruptcies and scandals.

Net flows into the 10 largest US spot bitcoin funds reached US$2.17 billion in the week to Mar 1, with more than half of that going into BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, according to LSEG data.

"We've been fielding more questions from the field on bitcoin, especially now that there are more efficient and cheaper ways to own bitcoin after the recent slew of ETF launches," said David Wagner, a portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors.

In addition to demand from a wider pool of investors, bitcoin, and crypto generally, have gotten a boost from the prospect of the Federal Reserve cutting US interest rates, which often prompts investors to divert capital into assets that are higher yielding or more