Bitcoin breaks US$70,000 amidst market optimism
Bitcoin’s value surged past US$70,000 on Monday to reach its highest point since March 16, according to CoinGecko data.
The price spike comes in the face of a record $942 million withdrawal from digital asset investment products in the week prior, breaking a seven-week streak of capital inflows.
Investment firm Bernstein has responded to the bullish trend by raising its Bitcoin year-end forecast to US$90,000, signaling confidence in the cryptocurrency’s future and associated mining stocks.
Monday’s market movement followed the Swiss National Bank’s unexpected rate cut announcement last week and the U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers’ discussions on rate reductions.
Meanwhile, BlackRock’s introduction of the BlackRock Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), a tokenized fund on the Ethereum blockchain, has been widely perceived as a positive development for the crypto industry.
Bitcoin is now less than a month away from its expected halving date next month when the network’s rewards will be cut from the current 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block.
The halving slows down the inflowing supply of Bitcoin, which some believe will contribute to its scarcity.
Some market observers maintain a high probability of Bitcoin reaching the US$100,000 milestone within the year. U.K. bank Standard Chartered last year set a US$120,000 target for the digital asset.
