Exploring the Reasons Behind Today’s Crypto Market Surge

Key Points

• The global crypto market has seen a 5.8% increase, pushing Bitcoin’s market dominance to 53.3%.
• Bitcoin’s market capitalization has reached a new all-time high, with other major altcoins also rallying.

The global market cap of cryptocurrencies has risen by 5.8% to $2.51 trillion as of March 4. This surge has resulted in a boost in Bitcoin’s (BTC) market dominance to 53.3%, as its market cap reached a new peak.

Bitcoin (BTC) has seen an 8.5% increase in the last 24 hours, reaching an intra-day high of $68,602 on March 4. Other top cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), XRP (XRP), and Dogecoin (DOGE) have also seen significant increases.

Bitcoin’s Market Cap Hits New High

Bitcoin’s market capitalization has reached a new record against the dollar. BTC’s rally to $68,602 on March 4 pushed its total market value to a high of $1.33 trillion. The last time BTC’s market cap reached $1.3 trillion was over two years ago, on Nov. 10, 2021, when it hit $68,990.

A cryptocurrency’s market capitalization is the total value of the digital asset calculated by multiplying the number of coins in circulation by the current spot price of the coin. At the time of writing, there were 19,644,550 BTC in supply.

BTC’s price rally has been attributed to the upcoming supply halving, which is expected to reduce miner rewards by 50%. There are approximately 48 days left until the halving. The approval of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States has also contributed to Bitcoin’s price growth.

Record Inflows into Crypto Products

The price of BTC continued to rise toward its all-time high amid increasing inflows into the spot Bitcoin ETFs. According to the Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report, crypto products recorded their second-largest weekly inflow, totaling $1.84 billion. This was accompanied by a record $30 billion in trading volume.

Bitcoin accounted for “94% of the inflows” at $1.72 billion, as U.S.-based funds continued to dominate with net inflows totaling $1.88 billion. This comes against a backdrop of increasing outflows from the incumbent Grayscale Bitcoin ETF, GBTC.

While institutional capital continues to flow into Bitcoin, recent price moves saw short investors double down with further inflows. The crypto market rally has also led to a wave of short position liquidations across the market, totaling over $348.2 million in 24 hours.

Despite the short-seller losing streak, “$3 billion in open interest has been added to the #crypto market over the last 24 hours,” according to crypto trading analysis platform Coinalyze.

Open interest (OI) measures the total value of all outstanding crypto futures contracts across exchanges. A high OI value indicates increased market activity and investor sentiment.

There is optimism surrounding the spot ETFs and the upcoming Bitcoin halving, leading to increased positive sentiment. Increased institutional capital flows into crypto funds, a potential spot Ether ETF, and the upcoming Bitcoin halving are strong indications the bull market is here.