Bitcoin is touching prices that it hasn’t seen since early May when Chinese regulations caused a plummet in the popular cryptocurrency. That, coupled with the currently popular Shiba Inu coin, have driven high traffic through crypto exchanges as trading volumes increase drastically.
Image source: CoinMarketCap
Bitcoin has made a rapid recovery from its most recent lows of $1.8 billion last month, climbing to over $2.3 trillion currently, and showing the potential to push even higher, reported Forbes. Part of the boost has come as major institutions lend credibility to the crypto space.
Bank of America recently released a white paper that acknowledged Bitcoin and crypto as “too large to ignore,” sending the price of Bitcoin above $50,000 the same day.
“It’s difficult to overstate how transformative blockchain technology, digital assets, and the thousands of decentralized apps that have yet to be created could potentially be,” said the bank’s analyst team, led by the bank’s head of cryptocurrency and digital asset strategy Alkesh Shah, in their report.
“Bitcoin is important,” Shah said in a statement released with the report, “but the digital asset ecosystem is so much more.”
Interest in the crypto world continues to increase as decentralized finance (DeFi) becomes more widespread, coupled with the popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFT), whose market grew $10.7 billion through the third quarter of this year. This is eight times that of the previous quarter and reflects a sustained interest in digital assets of all kinds.
Alongside Bank of America’s paper acknowledging the importance of the crypto space, U.S. Bank joined the ranks of JPMorgan in offering crypto services or support for their clients, and Citi announced its entrance into Bitcoin futures trading. As more major institutions continue to enter the crypto space, it signals longevity and support for the growing asset class.
Bitwise Captures Crypto Ecosystem Growth
The Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (BITQ) offers investors exposure to the crypto revolution without investing directly in crypto assets.
BITQ tracks the Bitwise Crypto Innovators 30 Index, an index that has at least 85% allocation into companies that are cryptocurrency exchanges carrying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, crypto mining, and mining equipment companies, as well as service providers. The remaining 15% is allocated to large-cap support companies with at least one major part of their businesses dedicated to crypto.
Coinbase, the popular cryptocurrency exchange, is carried within BITQ and is experiencing a boom in trading volume right now while Bitcoin and Shiba Inu cryptocurrencies surge.
The top 3 holdings of BITQ are MicroStrategy (MSTR) with a weight of 10.66%, Galaxy Digital Holding (GLXY) with a weight of 10.14%, and Coinbase Global (COIN) with a weight of 10.13%.
The fund has an expense ratio of 0.85% and net assets of $77 million.
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