Bitcoin Closes in on ATH with Surging $1.21T Market Cap and Lightning Network Following World’s First Bitcoin Futures ETF Launch
Bitcoin continues to flex its prowess as a legitimate store of value and inflation hedge with an ATH market cap of $1.21, having climbed up to $64,400 to nearly pull even with its ATH of $64,863 set in April 2021.
Layer 2 Lightning Network has also hit an ATH in BTC capacity with over 3,100 and continues to accelerate its rapid off-chain payment capabilities.
Today, most eyes were on the historic opening of the Proshares Bitcoin Futures ETF (BITO), the world’s first BTC Futures on the NYSE Arca.
BITO opened at 40.88 and jumped 2.6% to close at 41.94 with nearly $1B in trading volume across 23M+ shares, marking the 2nd highest open ever for an ETF and blowing away all expectations in the process.
The massive success highlights the increased appetite among institutional investors looking to gain BTC exposure and could bode well for a more transparent regulatory framework for the benefit of the entire space.
Despite the considerable headwinds still facing a spot Bitcoin ETF, Grayscale has nonetheless moved forward with its long-standing intentions of converting GBTC into a fully-fledged ETF.
Bitcoin saw a considerable jump following Federal Reserve Chair Jeremy Powell’s claim that he would not ban cryptocurrency, with Square CEO Jack Dorsey contributing to a further rally behind his interest in creating a bitcoin mining rig.
The U.S. has established a commanding position with 35.40% of the global hash rate as of August 2021 following mass migration from China.
Chainalysis became the latest to add BTC to its balance sheet following its first digital asset portfolio purchase. On the other side of the spectrum, trailblazing MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor’s forays into BTC has apparently netted him roughly $3.5B, or the equivalent of MicroStrategy’s total revenue from 2014–2020.
In an equally impressive move, pending Valkyrie Bitcoin ETF reverted its ticker from BTF to a more emphatic BTFD as a handful of other potential Bitcoin futures ETFs look to capitalize on the success of Proshares.
