The cryptocurrency market has outperformed traditional markets this week, driven by easing selling pressure, according to analysts. The largest crypto rose by more than 4% in the past 24 hours to trade above the $68,000 mark.
Bitcoin is currently changing hands at $67,800, according to The Block's Price Page. The global cryptocurrency market cap today is $2.45 trillion, a 0.8% increase in the last 24 hours, according to Coinglass data.
Amid the upswing in bitcoin's price, the ETC Group's Cryptoasset Sentiment Index has returned to neutral after hovering at slightly bearish levels in recent weeks. An ETC Group report on Wednesday noted that selling pressure, particularly in bitcoin, has eased, stabilizing net outflows and sparking renewed buying activity on spot exchanges. “The return of risk appetite is also due to Microstrategy (MSTR) reaching a new performance peak, which tends to bode well for bitcoin's price,” ETC Group said.
In contrast, global equity markets struggled to stabilize on Wednesday after ASML, a key player in Europe's chip sector, delivered a surprisingly weak orders outlook, impacting chipmakers like Nvidia. By the close of trading on Tuesday, Wall Street had retreated from its record highs, with the S&P 500 dropping 0.8% to 5,815.26 — marking the index's first decline after setting an all-time high for the 46th time this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell 0.8%, ending at 42,740.42, while the Nasdaq Composite experienced a 1% decline, settling at 18,315.59.
Wednesday's breakout in the cryptocurrency market was accompanied by a surge in liquidations over the past 24 hours. Total liquidations across centralized exchanges amounted to almost $300 million, according to data from Coinglass. Bitcoin was the leading cryptocurrency in terms of liquidations, with nearly $90 million in liquidated positions over the past day. Almost $65 million of these bitcoin liquidations were short positions.
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“The volatility over the past 24 hours triggered short liquidations for bitcoin, with over $1 billion in shorts clustered just below $68,500, any upward acceleration by bitcoin could spark further liquidations, potentially driving a decisive breakout from its current range,” BRN analyst Valentin Fournier told The Block.
MicroStrategy's net asset value (NAV) premium — calculated by dividing its market capitalization by the value of its bitcoin holdings — has surged to the highest level in three years, currently standing at 2.7 times the value of its bitcoin reserves. This reflects a 188% increase in NAV premium since the start of 2024, signaling strong investor confidence in MicroStrategy's broader strategy of leveraging bitcoin as a core asset.
One key factor driving bitcoin's performance is the surge in institutional inflows into spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). US spot bitcoin ETFs have seen a significant increase in net purchases, totaling over $1 billion in the last three trading days, according to Farside Investors. Fidelity and BlackRock have led the charge in the buying spree, collectively attracting over $640 million in inflows this week.
