Bitcoin has recently had an astounding market rally. This has pushed it into 8th place in the world’s largest asset class. In this article, we discuss its current momentum.
After last week’s crypto surge, the market cap of Bitcoin has exceeded that of several other assets, most notably silver. It climbed its market cap to $1.736 trillion. This was also buoyed by strong interest from traditional financial backers, as $4.5 billion in inflows were recorded from the IBIT Bitcoin Trust.
The World’s Biggest Assets
At the time of writing, the world’s biggest assets were as follows:
Gold
Nvidia
Apple
Microsoft
Alphabet
Amazon
Saudi Aramco
Bitcoin
Silver
Meta Platforms
This is according to data supplied by companiesmarketcap.com. Bitcoin managed to move up in the ranking due to a surge to $88,000. At the same time, Silver had a dip of 2%, allowing the cryptocurrency to overtake it. Leading the pack is still gold, which has an astounding value of $17.1476 trillion. The price of Bitcoin would need to increase its value by over 10x to reach this level.
There was also a huge increase in trading volumes. Sentiment is remaining strong with Bitcoin, though some other cryptocurrencies that rallied have suffered a setback. If the rally continues, there are predictions that it could hit the six-figure psychological barrier of $100,000 before the end of the year.
Bitcoin Predictions in 2025
The coming year will be an eventful one for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, to say the least. It is widely believed that the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US will deregulate crypto. This will undoubtedly increase confidence in the sector, pushing up prices even further. This does also suggest that it could rally past the six-figure mark.
Other expectations are that taxes will be cut and regulations on businesses will also be reduced. This will also buoy consumer sentiment. Generally, when times are tougher economically, people tend to drift towards more stable assets. However, when times are good, people will move towards riskier ones, such as cryptocurrency.
This can be seen in other areas as well. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 44,000, setting some all-time high records. This was partly due to interest in large financial institutions like banks, which also had a strong day. The Russell 2000 index, which looks at companies with smaller market caps, also hit a high, making 1.5% at the close of trading. However, the biggest jump in stocks was with Tesla, who managed to add 9% to their value. This adds to a huge increase of almost 50% since last Tuesday.
The Year of 2024 in Bitcoin
Aside from the spectacular rally towards the end of the year, it has been a very positive one for Bitcoin. This started off in January, when the Securities and Exchange Committee gave the go-ahead for Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. These were nothing new, but allowing them in conjunction with a cryptocurrency was.
An ETFS allows investors to buy into a company that holds a basket of commodities. In this case, it is Bitcoin. As Bitcoin rises and falls in price, so does the value of the ETF. It is seen as a more secure way for traditional finance investors to get involved in Bitcoin, hedging against some of the volatility.
In general, these Bitcoin ETFs proved extremely successful. Despite a few outpourings during the year, they have seen positive inflows. However, their most promising period has been in the last week, where they now command $90.6 billion in net assets and are 5.27% of Bitcoin’s market cap.
This has also been seen in the past few days with Ethereum ETFs; introduced later in the year, they had seen less positive inflows and receipts. However, during the recent crypto rally, they have also surged to $9.27 billion in assets.
The year was also one of the times when a Bitcoin halving event occurred. This event happens every four years and aims to lower the amount of Bitcoin being produced. As a result, they become more rare, and generally, their value increases.
Usually, this price increase occurs in a small way three months after the event and in a larger way six months after the halving. Taking place in April, this would have had it happen at the start of October. Yet global events may have put this back somewhat, and this delay has probably been another major factor in the contribution of Bitcoin’s spectacular rally.
It does this by cutting the reward for the mining of Bitcoin in half. It was originally intended to cut the inflationary impact on Bitcoin by lowering the rewards. At the same time, it also hikes up demand as fewer Bitcoins are on the market, despite more people wanting to buy it.
The price of Bitcoin, according to many, is set to increase. However, there are many factors you must begin to consider when thinking about investing. None are a guaranteed win, and Bitcoin has always been more volatile than others.