Bitcoin soars to two-year high, on its way to breaking a record
The world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap is rallying due to big investors' growing appetite. Bitcoin's price rose 10% in two days and was trading at more than $56,000 (€51,606), the highest since November 2021.
The CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX) had a peak of $56,940.18 (€52,472.08) in the last 24 hours but the index lowered to around $56,500 (€52,0660) by Tuesday morning in Europe.
One of the main drivers of the current rally was crypto investor and software firm MicroStrategy announcing a large purchase of 3,000 bitcoins for $155 million (€143 million).
Cryptocurrencies are increasingly favoured by institutional investors.
"According to CoinShares, investment in crypto funds rose by $598 million (€551 million) last week, following a record $2.452 billion (€2.26 billion) inflow the week before," said FxPro senior market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich. "Investments in bitcoin rose by $570 million (€570 million)."
The capitalisation of the crypto market in total surpasses $2 trillion (€1.84 trillion), approximately the equivalent of the third biggest EU economy Italy's GDP.
According to a recent report, Bitcoin is expected to reach a new record of $88,000 (€82,000) throughout 2024, before it settles around $77,000 (€70,957) at the end of the year.
The recent approval of bitcoin-owning exchange-traded funds (ETFs) made Bitcoin available for a wider selection of investors, pushing up prices.
"There's only so much supply ... but the demand unleashed by the US spot ETFs seems to be relentless," said Justin d'Anethan from Keyrock, a digital asset market maker to Reuters.
"Bitcoin and Ethereum [the world's second-largest cryptocurrency] are the cryptocurrencies of choice for institutional speculators," said Kuptsikevich, adding
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