Bitcoin reaches a new high, institutions get on board to drive the price to continue to rise

In the past half month, the price of Bitcoin has soared from $20,000 to $34,000, and market sentiment is exceptionally high. The total market value of Bitcoin has jumped to ninth in the world, second only to Alibaba.

In the past 24 hours, the price of Bitcoin has experienced a pullback. The mainstream cryptocurrency market has fluctuated accordingly, with 38 out of the TOP 50 digital assets declining, among which a certain decentralized exchange platform token saw the largest drop of 11.34%. Nevertheless, overall market speculation enthusiasm remains high.

In this round of price surge, approximately 88,000 Bitcoins have been withdrawn from exchanges in the past 30 days. Among them, a well-known exchange saw about 84,600 Bitcoins withdrawn, while two other large exchanges withdrew 5,715 and 2,599 respectively. On January 3rd alone, the capital outflow from the well-known exchange hit a historical high, with over 3,500 Bitcoins flowing out, speculated to be due to institutional buying.

Currently, 9 funds hold over $23 billion in Bitcoin. Accumulating Bitcoin has become a major investment strategy for various institutions.

The Chief Technology Officer of a certain on-chain data analysis platform stated that as institutional investors continue to enter the market, liquidity is disappearing from cryptocurrency exchanges. A large amount of Bitcoin is being transferred to custodial wallet addresses, and the holding amount of miners' addresses is also continuously increasing. The decrease in market supply is driving the price pump, but it may also lead to potential severe drop risks in the future.

Despite recent news regarding regulatory issues faced by some crypto projects, there is still positive news in the regulation of digital currencies. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency publicly announced on January 5 that it allows federal banks to use stablecoins for payment and other activities. This undoubtedly reinforces Bitcoin's status as "digital gold" and is seen as a "major victory for the crypto industry and stablecoins."

An international financial media outlet reported on Monday, U.S. time, that Bitcoin has surpassed the $30,000 mark. Unlike in 2017 when a senior executive of a major bank likened Bitcoin to the "tulip bubble," today the bank's global market strategist indicated that Bitcoin's long-term price target will exceed $146,000 and may capture a portion of the gold market share in the future.

On January 1st, the Bitcoin to gold exchange rate reached a historic high, surpassing the peak of the 2017 bull market. Whether, as predicted by some bank strategists, the Bitcoin price will reach the consensus range of $50,000 to $100,000, let us wait and see.