Bitcoin Is Above $68 Thousand Again

CoinDesk 20 Index: 2,066.01 +1.2%Bitcoin (BTC): $68,101.44 3.96%Ether (ETH): $2,629.35 +1.16%S&P 500: 5,815.26 -0.76%Gold: $2,678.07 +0.65%Nikkei 225: 39,180.30 -1.83%

Bitcoin jumped above $68,000, extending its weekly gain of over 8 percent.

BTC, which gained about 4% in the last 24 hours, outperformed the digital asset market as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index, which rose about 1.4%.

Spot bitcoin ETFs recorded inflows of $371 million yesterday, marking the first time gains above $250 million since July 16, according to SoSoValue data.

BTC futures open interest on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) reached an all-time high of 172,430 BTC ($11.6 billion).

CME witnessed open interest increasing by 25,125 BTC in the last five trading days. A similar increase in open positions was seen in June 2023, when Bitcoin rose from approximately $25,000 to $30,000. Vetle Lunde, senior analyst at K33 Research, noted that this growth in CME is driven by active and direct market participants and is not coming from futures-based ETFs like ProShares Bitcoin ETF (BITO).

Additionally, Lunde pointed out that the activity was structured to end in November, following the US elections.

Grayscale has filed to convert the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund into an ETF.

The fund is based on the CoinDesk Large Cap Select Index, which measures the market cap-weighted performance of leading cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ether (ETH), XRP, Solana (SOL), and Avalanche (AVAX).

If the fund, which is currently traded over-the-counter, is approved to be converted into an ETF, it will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The chart shows the session-wide breakdown of bitcoin’s 15.5 percent 30-day gain. Price movements brought the highest gains during European hours, followed by the Asia Pacific time zone. Most of the gains in the first quarter were realized during North American trading hours. Source: Velo Data