Bitcoin breaks new price record

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The price of bitcoin has hit a new all-time high, reaching above $71,000 on Monday morning.

The cryptocurrency is now up more than $30,000 since the start of the year, with the record-breaking rally largely driven by huge inflows from institutional investors.

In January, the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first ever spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for bitcoin, opening up the market to billions of dollars from major investment firms like BlackRock and Fidelity.

The latest price record came as the London Stock Exchange confirmed that it would begin accepting applications for bitcoin exchange-traded notes (ETNs) from next month.

Several other leading cryptocurrencies have seen similar gains in recent days, with Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) both rising more than 10 per cent in price since last week.

Crypto market analysts have also pointed to bitcoin’s upcoming ‘halving’, which will see the rewards for mining the cryptocurrency slashed in half next month.

The restriction in supply, combined with the increase in demand from traditional investors, means some industry figures are predicting further price increases.

“After breaching its all-time high we now expect Bitcoin to trade at even higher numbers in the run up to the halving event in April. Provided US spot Bitcoin ETF flows remain strong $100,000 for BTC in 2024 is not out of reach,” Ed Hindi, chief investment officer at digital asset manager Tyr Capital, told The Independent.

“We expect a weaker market in June/July as the FED starts cutting rates and “sell the news” profit taking potentially overcomes fresh inflows. Extreme volatility is highly likely as we trade into uncharted territory.”

As with previous bitcoin rallies, a peak is typically followed by a major price correction.

Following bitcoin’s record-breaking run in 2021, which saw it rise from below $5,000 to above $68,000 in less than two years, it fell back again to below $20,000 over the coming months.