The Bitcoin price has surged above $8000 after Bitfinex raised $1 billion and new data emerged that it’s institutions fueling the Bitcoin price explosion.
Over the past 24 hours Bitcoin has surged 14% to trade around $8000. The move brings BTC’s weekly gains to around 36 percent.
The price spike came off the back of Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino announcing the company had raised $1 billion in just ten days from institutional investors.
. @bitfinex is able to raise 1b USDt in 10 days, in a private sale. Private companies, giants in our industry and outside, made investments for > 100m each. A legion of inside and outside users made investments for > 1m each.
— Paolo Ardoino 🍐 (@paoloardoino) May 13, 2019
Bitfinex IEO raises more than $1 billion
The money will hep shore up its troubled stablecoin Tether.
Bitfinex and Tether have been at the centre of allegations of an $850 million fraud which called into question the USDT reserves.
Bitcoin jumped 4% in price within minutes of the announcement.
1/ I normally never post bullish stuff unless I think it’s justified with data. Well, today might be the day. “Institutions are coming” has been the never-ending story for the last 4 years. Let’s look at some GBTC data. https://t.co/qBK6pPXXEA pic.twitter.com/rqUECQ5tS6
— Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) May 13, 2019
Institutions fueling Bitcoin price
New data from American digital asset manager Grayscale investments also shows a 42% growth in product inflows in the first quarter of 2019.
The just-released financial report shows $3.3 million a week is flowing into the $1.4 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust – vastly outweighing its non-Bitcoin products. Around 73% of Grayscale’s clients are institutional investors.
In April Bitcoin inflows into the trust totaled 11,236 Bitcoin – roughly the same as the previous four months combined.
Another sign the institutions are moving into Bitcoin in a big way came last week when Bloomberg reported Fidelity Digital Assets will offer Over The Counter (OTC) Bitcoin trading “within a few weeks” only targeted at institutional investors.
That’s the crypto division of the massive financial institution Fidelity Investments – which looks after US$7.2 trillion in customer assets.
Bitcoin has had its largest volume of all-time two days in a row (h/t @krugermacro)
THE BULLS ARE BACK! 🔥
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) May 13, 2019
More than $27 billion traded across the day
Needless to say, Bitcoin has set another all-time high for 2019 – and the momentum is still upwards.
The last time Bitcoin traded above the US$8000 mark was back in July 2018.
According to Messari data, more than $27 billion of Bitcoin was traded over the past 24 hours – however, much of that data is believed to be inflated by wash trading.
On the ten exchanges identified by Bitwise as having legitimate volume data, around $2.1 billion was traded.
Bitcoin’s market dominance has now increased to 60% – its highest since December 11, 2017, according to CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin is breaking all resistances 💪 pic.twitter.com/WNbYHHNpyL
— Toro (@CrypToroMx) May 13, 2019
Bitcoin price smashes $8000 as Consensus 2019 kicks off
The price spike also follows the launch of Consensus in New York on Monday – one of the most (if not the most) important conferences in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.
In three out of the four years the conference has existed, Bitcoin prices have risen by between 78% and 138%.
That came to a shuddering halt during last year’s bear market, however, when prices fell 28%.
The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is now $234 billion up from $209 billion yesterday.
Monster week for Bitcoin price
The price rise comes on top of a monster week for Bitcoin.
Around the middle of the week Bitcoin was trading just under $6000 but the original cryptocurrency shrugged off the Binance hack and the FUD surrounding Tether to post the year’s most significant gains.
From Wednesday it steadily increasing until Saturday morning when it gained 20 percent in a day.
Altcoins had been lagging behind, but most have now posted doubled digit gains over the course of the week, led by Bitcoin Cash on 34 percent, Litecoin on 17% and EOS with 15%. Ethereum has risen 13 percent over the week.