Monday Markets: Bitcoin at $34,000, Ethereum at $1,000

Good morning. Happy New Year to everyone and we’re sure 2021’s better. The bar is set pretty low though, what will all that happened last year. In the cryptocurrency markets, everything is euphoric at the moment, with the top two cryptocurrencies achieving phenomenal price increase in the last few days.. 

Welcome to Monday Markets, part of our new series: BitPinas Daily. We will look at the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum and the major cryptocurrencies. Crypto is global, but sometimes news that matters happens while we sleep. So we bring to you what’s happening in our space here and abroad. 

Market Price as of January 4, 2021::

Bitcoin closed January 3, 2021, at $33,041.49 per BTC. We’re up 24% in the last 7 days and 33% since the year began. This is a new all-time high.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands today at $614,235,359,908 which is 68.8% of the entire cryptocurrency market.

On the table above, there’s the cryptocurrency SLP. If you wonder what that is, check out this article: Playing Axie Infinity vs Minimum Basic Salary in the Philippines.

FOMO

Bitcoin worth $1B leaves Coinbase as institutions ‘FOMO’ buy: says analyst

Institution-focused Coinbase Pro exchange registered an outflow of over 35,000 bitcoin (BTC, +1.73%) worth more than $1 billion early Saturday, according to data source CryptoQuant. The large outflow comes a day after 12,063 coins left the exchange and represents institutional FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) buying, according to Ki Young Ju, CEO of the Korea-based blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant. 

While Ju’s claim that institutions are now buying on fear of missing out can be challenged, there is evidence that persistent demand from big players is creating a supply squeeze, allowing for a continued price rally. (Omkar Godbole, Coindesk)

Bitcoin

Bitcoin hits all-time high of $34,608 on 12th birthday

Bitcoin’s price took a few years to take off, but by the end of 2017 there was a huge boom, reaching a high watermark of almost $20,000. The price promptly crashed in early 2018, screeching below $4000 dollars by the end of the year with a market cap of below $100 billion. 

By early 2020 Bitcoin’s price had recovered to around $10,000. But it took a pandemic to the global financial system hard enough for Bitcoin’s price to surpass its 2017 highs. In mid-March, 2020, Bitcoin crashed to lows of $4,300 along with global markets. Then it started to climb, slowly at first but then all at once, to the all-time of over $34,000 today. (Tim Hakki, Decrypt)

2020’s Bitcoin rally has made it a great year for crypto stocks

Firms with businesses in the crypto market, like Galaxy Digital and Silvergate, appreciated by more than 100%, while firms that advocate for the market — most notably Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy, also saw gains, according to data compiled by The Block Research.

• Galaxy Digital: 952%
• Microstrategy: 166%
• Silvergate: 360%
• Square: 239%

(Frank Chaparro, The Block)

Ethereum

Ethereum just shot past $1000, edging in on all-time high

The price of Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, today hit $1,005 the culmination of a weekend bender that’s added a few hundred dollars to its price. Coinbase showed that Eth briefly hit that price at 23:38 UTC, before dropping below $1,000. 

While proselytizers and vultures alike have been circling BTC in droves since Christmas, Ethereum’s strong performance puts it well on the way to surpassing its all time high of $1,432 set in January 2018. (Tim Hakki, Decrypt)

What else is happening

• Retail investors are largely uninvolved as Bitcoin price chases $40K (Joshua Harrison, Cointelegraph)
• Average crypto venture funding size grew about 33% in 2020 (MK Manoylov, The Block)
• Mike Novogratz attributes BTC’s rise past $30K to institutional adoption (Turner Wright, Cointelegraph)

This article is published on BitPinas: Monday Markets: Bitcoin at $34,000, Ethereum at $1,000