Bitcoin Price Passes $61,000, Ether Shows Gradual Rally: Details

Bitcoin is pumping, people! The asset, for the first time since November 2021, crossed the $61,000 mark (roughly Rs. 51 lakh). On Thursday, February 29, Bitcoin recorded a gain of 8.32 percent, taking its price to $61,746 (roughly Rs. 51.4 lakh). In the last 24 hours, the value of Bitcoin has increased by $3754 (Rs. 3.11 lakh approx). According to market analysts, the surge was driven by the ten spot bitcoin ETFs in the US setting a new daily record, surpassing the $7.7 billion (roughly Rs. 63,833 crore) trading volume driven by retail investors jumping into the crypto the rally.

“BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF traded $3.3 billion (roughly Rs. 27,357 crore) on Wednesday, double its previous record volume. Bitcoin has jumped more than 50 percent since the beginning of the year. If this momentum continues, Bitcoin is likely to surpass its previous all-time high soon,” Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex, told Gadgets360.

Ether recorded a gain of 5.42 percent when it entered the trading slide on Thursday. The current trading value of ETH stands at $3424 (approx. Rs. 2.83 lakh). In the last day, ETH prices rose by $176 (approx. Rs. 14,590).

“Ethereum broke $3,400 (Rs. 2.81 lakh approx), which is yet to have a similar rally as Bitcoin and is expected to hold these levels strongly until the halving. ETH spot ETFs could send the second-largest cryptocurrency to new all-time highs (ATHs),” Manhar Garegrath, Head of India and Global Partnerships at Liminal Custody Solutions told Gadgets360.

Multiple altcoins have joined BTC and ETH in their rallies. These include Binance Coin, Solana, Cardano, Dogecoin, Avalanche, Chainlink and Polkadot.

Other cryptocurrencies trading with gains on Thursday included Wrapped Bitcoin, Shiba Inu, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Cosmos.

The total crypto market capitalization rose by 6.90 percent in the last 24 hours. The current valuation of the crypto market stands at $2.3 trillion (roughly Rs. 1,90,67,264 crores) according to CoinMarketCap. In light of BTC’s continued rally, Bitcoin’s dominance of the crypto market stands at 53 percent.

“All Indian investors who previously invested in Bitcoin are now in a winning position, with market sentiment slowly moving into the ‘extreme greed’ category. Yesterday showed what can happen if you are too late. After BTC hit $64,000 (Rs. 53 lakh approx), there was a sudden drop due to sudden profit booking and the price of BTC fell below $59,000 (Rs. 48.9 lakh approx) within minutes, causing nearly $200 million (Rs. 1,658 crore approx. ) worth of liquidations in just one hour. At the same time, the world’s largest fiat-based exchange, Coinbase, was also slightly lower,” highlighted the CoinSwitch Markets Desk.

Despite the otherwise bullish market sentiment, some cryptocurrencies posted record losses on Thursday. These include Tether, Ripple, Tron, Polygon, Uniswap, Near Protocol and Leo.

“It is worth noting that Bitcoin has never crossed all-time highs in the halving event. The high of $69,000 (roughly Rs. 57.2 lakh) will act as a major resistance. However, in yesterday’s crypto market cycle, we also saw a glimpse of what altcoins can also do in such scenarios, as the main memcoin DOGE pumped 20 percent in just an hour,” the CoinSwitch Markets desk added.

Amid the continued upswing, market analysts are advising the investing community to exercise caution and due diligence.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any kind offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be liable for any loss arising from any investment based on an accepted recommendation, forecast or other information contained in the article.