Bitcoin price peaks at $54,910 as BlackRock spot BTC ETF, IBIT, trades above $1 billion on Thursday

• Bitcoin price has broken the range, shattering the $54,000 milestone for the first time since December 2021.
• Amid Spot BTC ETF euphoria, BTC could climb 10% to $55,000. 
• The bullish thesis will be invalidated if the price loses the $54,000 threshold.

Bitcoin (BTC) price neared the $55,000 milestone on Thursday, following reports that trading volumes for the recently approved spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) had reached their peak trading volumes, totaling $3.24 billion. 

Also Read: Week Ahead: Bitcoin threatens a drop, altcoins in shambles

BlackRock Bitcoin ETF surpasses $1 billion

Bitcoin price approached the $55,000 threshold on Thursday, almost nicking it after three long years as the level was last tested on December 3, 2021.

The move saw almost $100 million in short positions liquidated, alongside, nearly $12 million in long positions.

BTC liquidations

It comes on the back of news that BlackRock spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) the IBIT, has traded well over $1 billion on Thursday, February 26.

JUST IN: BlackRock’s #Bitcoin ETF just broke $1 Billion in trading volume for the day!

@EricBalchunas pic.twitter.com/ymg0iFvgD8

— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) February 26, 2024

ETF specialist with Bloomberg Intelligence Eric Balchunas acknowledged that the nine Bitcoin ETFs have broken all-time volume records, with $2.4 billion, just above the January 11 postings when the investment products started trading.

BlackRock’s IBIT accounts for over $1.3 billion, according to Balchunas, articulating that with this, the product has broken its record by about 30%.

It's official..the New Nine Bitcoin ETFs have broken all time volume record today with $2.4b, just barely beating Day One but about double their recent daily average. $IBIT went wild accounting for $1.3b of it, breaking its record by about 30%. pic.twitter.com/MiCs1rzttM

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 26, 2024

Grayscale is first runner’s up with $843.6 million for its GBTC, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC and Ark Invest’s ARKB in the third and fourth positions recording $587.3 million and $265.6 million respectively.

JUST IN: Total spot #Bitcoin ETF trading volume surpasses $3.24 billion today:

• BlackRock: $1,318,226,580
• Grayscale: $843,654,199
• Fidelity: $587,327,032
• Ark Invest: $265,647,305
• Bitwise: $83,248,930
• Invesco: $60,072,480
• WisdomTree: $37,426,253
• VanEck:…

— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) February 26, 2024

Hashdex BTC futures ETF, the DEFI, is tailing with $217.0 million

Some attribute the surge to the fear of missing out (FOMO), instigated by recent declarations by MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor that the firm had increased its BTC portfolio by 3,000 tokens worth $155 million. 

MicroStrategy buys 3,000 Bitcoin just 52 days before BTC halving

Fifty-two days to the halving, business intelligence firm MicroStrategy has added 3,000 BTC tokens worth $155 million to its portfolio, according to an announcement by the company’s CEO Michael Saylor on social media platform X. The average purchase price per token in the latest investment is $51,813.

On-chain tool Lookonchain has corroborated the revelation, indicating that with MicroStrategy’s BTC portfolio growing to 193,000, the portfolio is now valued at $9.9 billion, with an average purchase price of $31,544. MicroStrategy already has over $3.8 billion in unrealized profit at the current price

As of February 21, MicroStrategy boasted a stark 190,000 BTC tokens in its portfolio, which brought its market capitalization to around $12 billion. With the latest move, the firm is even closer to the S&P 500 list than it was then with Nasdaq showing a market cap of $13.4 billion as of 16:00 GMT.

Find out the threshold for listing on the S&P 500, the list of America’s largest 500 publicly traded firms, here.

Notably, the development comes hours after MicroStrategy’s X account was hacked, leading to approximately $440,000 in losses from unsuspecting users. Specifically, it happened that the bad actors posted a phishing message on the firm’s X account, touting “$MSTR tokens” up for grabs.

On-chain detective ZachXBT confirmed the attack, where users following the malicious link to claim the “$MSTR token” were instead redirected to a fake MicroStrategy website. Here, they received a prompt to link their crypto wallets and grant permissions. MicroStrategy has since taken back control of their X account and has taken down the fake message. One of the victims lost approximately $420,000 in different tokens, Etherscan data shows.

---