Why is Bitcoin still rising sharply?

Despite news of rising inflation, Bitcoin jumped to $52,000 per unit as demand exceeded supply, especially in the US.

After a sharp drop following the US CPI data, Bitcoin quickly climbed back to the $50,000 range and gradually accumulated value until it surpassed $52,000 per unit on the evening of February 14th. Despite facing profit-taking pressure and subsequent fluctuations, the world's largest cryptocurrency has continued to trade around $52,000 to date.

Bitcoin has surged approximately 14% over the past week. Compared to the beginning of the year, the cryptocurrency has accumulated over 23%. The current upward trend has brought Bitcoin's market capitalization back to the $1 trillion mark after 26 months. The cryptocurrency greed-fear index reached 79/100, a record high in over two years since the cryptocurrency's price hit its all-time high in November 2021.

Analysts say the strong inflow of capital into newly listed US Bitcoin ETFs is the main driver. According to data provider CryptoQuant, approximately $9.5 billion in new money has entered the market through ETFs since they began trading on January 11th. In the past two weeks, more than 71% of new Bitcoin investment has come from spot ETFs, excluding GBTC. From there, investors are beginning to realize that demand is exceeding supply.

Over the past few months, hopes for a "soft landing" scenario for the US economy and the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs have helped improve investor sentiment. ETFs are considered a game-changer in the cryptocurrency market, which is known to be highly attractive to retail traders, as they allow investors access to Bitcoin without physically holding it.

In addition to increased demand, the market is also benefiting from the upcoming "halving" event in April. This quadrennial event halves the rewards for miners. Bitcoin has risen in price during the three previous halvings, most recently in 2020.

"If the rate of Bitcoin issuance slows down while demand remains stable or increases, the impact on price will be significant," said Duncan Ash, an expert at asset security firm Coincover.

On February 12 alone, ETFs purchased 10 times the amount of cryptocurrency that miners could create in a single day. The upcoming "Halving" will further reduce the supply, and investors expect the price of Bitcoin to continue rising in the coming months.

In addition to these two reasons, the market has also noted a new factor driving up prices. According to this unit, the current price surge is primarily driven by strong demand from US investors for the world's largest digital asset.

The Coinbase Premium Index – which measures the price difference of Bitcoin on Coinbase (based in the US) compared to Binance – rose to 0.12 on February 15th. This is its highest level since May 2023, according to data from analytics firm CryptoQuant. "This could indicate strong buying pressure from US investors," a CryptoQuant expert stated.

Markus Thielen, founder of research firm 10x Research, also noted that the majority of Bitcoin's price surge occurred during US trading hours. Over the past 30 days, the cryptocurrency has risen 17%, with 11% of that increase occurring during US trading hours, while gains during Asian and European trading hours accounted for only 3%.

Xiao Gu (according to CoinDesk , Reuters , CNBC )

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