The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has gone through the roof this week after US CPI data showed that inflation was slowing down, and it emerged that big banks like Morgan Stanley have large positions in US spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Bitcoin was worth under $66,000 at the end of the last trading session. It hit a new monthly high of over $66,750 earlier. On Wednesday, Morgan Stanley said in a 13F statement that it has spot Bitcoin ETFs worth $270 million. This fits with what the bank said in February when it wanted to get more involved with BTC. This is a big step forward in the acceptance of BTC by institutions. Morgan Stanley is also preparing to tell its clients about spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Morgan Stanley’s announcement comes at the same time that many big investors have been talking about the BTC ETFs they own. As of Thursday, Q1 13F reports show that more than 500 asset managers use these ETFs. Millennium Management has almost $2 billion in stocks, the most of any hedge fund.
This is about 3% of the $64 billion assets under management (AUM). Eric Balchunas, an ETF expert at Bloomberg, called Millennium the “king” of ETF holders. He said the new spot Bitcoin ETFs have about 200 times the normal number of holders for a new ETF. The State of Wisconsin Investment Board is one of these buyers. It has said it has almost $100 million in spot BTC ETFs.
Bitcoin Bulls Eye $70,000 Target Amid Institutional Adoption and Positive CPI Data
Bitcoin bulls hope the price will return above $70,000 because of increased interest in institutions adopting BTC through ETFs and good macroeconomic conditions. The Block reports that after the US CPI came out positively on Wednesday, more than $300 million flowed into spot Bitcoin ETFs. With this influx of funds, BTC rose above its 21-day and 50-day moving averages and set new monthly highs.
Bitcoin must go above its late-April high of over $67,000 to keep going up. If this goal is met, it could lead to a push above $70,000 and a test of the year’s highs. With the S&P 500 setting new record highs above 5,300, the success of US stocks could be used to predict how Bitcoin will move.
There are, however, concerns that a rise to new record highs in the next few weeks may be “premature.” Based on past trends, rises after halving usually begin 4 to 6 months after the halving, not just one month later. Also, risky investments like stocks and BTC tend to be volatile or lose value in the summer, though this may not happen during election years.
Even though these are past trends, the current Bitcoin bull run is not what people expected. Because people are looking forward to BTC ETFs, the price hit new highs before the halving event. This differs from the usual pattern where new highs happen after the halving. As Bitcoin grows into a more mature macro commodity, it is less likely to follow the long-term cycles that were once easy to predict. This means that the price might not move in line with past trends.
Institutional investors are very interested in the Bitcoin market. Big banks like Morgan Stanley are putting a lot of money into spot Bitcoin ETFs. This trend makes people more hopeful that prices will increase even more, which could lead to new record highs soon. But buyers should be careful because the market could go up and down, especially considering how it has done in the past after halves and how it changes with the seasons.
