Bitcoin is poised to close February with a 44% gain, its largest monthly advance since December 2020.
Bitcoin demand via U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs is met with constrained supply, dominated by long-term holders unwilling to sell, Galaxy’s Alex Thorn said.
Bitcoin {{BTC}} is on track to finish its strongest month since December 2020. Even with prices hovering near all-time records, this bull market isn’t close to peaking, analysts said.
The largest crypto asset by market capitalization has gained a staggering 44% in February, piercing $50,000 and $60,000 for the first time in years and hitting a $64,000 high Wednesday. The rally followed a sell-the-news pullback below $40,000 following the debut of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) in the U.S. in late January.
Bitcoin has a shot at hitting its highest month-end price ever. To do so, it needs to top $61,357 by midnight UTC, the Oct. 2021 closing price near the peak of the previous market cycle. At press time, BTC changed hands at around $61,200.
February’s crypto rally was broad-based, with the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) advancing more than 40%.
Decentralized exchange Uniswap’s governance token {{UNI}}, decentralized data storage network Filecoin’s FIL, and popular meme token dogecoin {{DOGE}} were the best performers of the CD20, outperforming BTC’s gains.
While bitcoin’s price is hovering near its all-time high, some analysts still see further upside.
“We haven’t even begun to reach the heights this is likely to go.” Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy, said in a market analysis posted on X (formerly Twitter) Thursday. He argued that the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs are a “game changer,” providing steady – and recently accelerating – demand for BTC. Meanwhile, some 75% of bitcoin’s supply is owned by long-term holders, who have been unwilling to sell so far at recent price levels.
On-chain transaction volume on the Bitcoin network and retail interest in crypto are still far off from levels experienced during prior peaks, IntoTheBlock analysts noted.
Crypto analytics firm Swissblock predicted that bitcoin’s current uptrend is “just the start of what is to come.
