Bitcoin (BTC) continues with its aggressive rally as the world’s largest cryptocurrency eyes for $30,000 before bidding the final adieu to 2020. It has been a phenomenal year for BTC investors as the world’s largest has emerged a potential outperformed to Gold.
Bitcoin (BTC) has emerged as an unstoppable force in 2020 as the world’s largest cryptocurrency moved past $29,000 levels thereby hitting a new all-time high earlier today. Over the last week, Bitcoin has spiked up significantly extending its weekly gains above 25% in the recent move.
At press time, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $29,002 levels with a market cap of $539 billion. In the last 24 hours, the Bitcoin (BTC) transaction volume has also surged to more than $50 billion. The latest price rally over the last week has been supported by massive institutional inflows coming into BTC. Despite this surge, institutions have continued with the BTC purchase in large quantities.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) now holds more than 600K Bitcoins. Thus, its assets under management have also spiked up above $17 billion as per the latest update.
12/30/20 UPDATE: Net Assets Under Management, Holdings per Share, and Market Price per Share for our Investment Products.
Total AUM: $19.7 billion$BTC $BCH $ETH $ETC $ZEN $LTC $XLM $XRP $ZEC pic.twitter.com/bS4crZVxEt
— Grayscale (@Grayscale) December 30, 2020
While institutions have been buying Bitcoin (BTC) at every level, the BTC supply at the exchange has been falling drastically. As per the on-chain analysis platform Glasnode, nearly 78% of the BTC supply is illiquid and hardly accessible for any purchase.
78% of the circulating #Bitcoin supply is illiquid and therefore hardly accessible for buying.
This points to a bullish investor sentiment as large amounts of $BTC are being hoarded – which reduces sell pressure.
Full report: https://t.co/nohmLNNJ7U
Highlights below 👇
— glassnode (@glassnode) December 29, 2020
As per Glassnode, currently, 14.5M BTC are illiquid while only 4.2M BTC remain in constant circulation for buying/selling. In 2020 alone, more than 1 million BTC have become illiquid with more investors HODLing.
Analysts say that the ‘Bitcoin liquidity crisis’ is a bullish sign for the cryptocurrency. As more institutions have been buying BTC, most of them have been going into cold storage for the long term.
Looking at the current BTC price rally, it is very much likely that Bitcoin (BTC) can touch $30,000 on the last day of 2020. Even the surge in the BTC hash-rate hints at rising mining activity and thus future price increase. This will push Bitcoin’s year-to-date gains above 300%.
2020 – a Phenomenal Year for Bitcoin (BTC) Investors
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 has been the most challenging year in the decade for the world. However, the changing global economic conditions have panned-out in favor of Bitcoin investors. The unprecedented money printing by the central bank and the rising inflationary pressure has pushed investors closer to Bitcoin (BTC).
In 2020, Bitcoin (BTC) truly emerged as a ‘store-of-value’ and an inflation hedge. In fact, it has outperformed some of the biggest asset classes like Gold. While BTC has gained nearly 300% this year as of December 31, 2020, Gold has gained close to 25%. BTC’s outperformance is clearly visible here.
#bitcoin = 15 ounces of gold. Up from 5 ounces end 2019 and 3 in 2018. Note there is no USD in this formula or chart. This is the pure S2F effect without QE / Brrr. 100x gold implies $188K bitcoin (at current gold prices; gold will probably increase in price due to QE). pic.twitter.com/5uXZVs0Rnr
— PlanB (@100trillionUSD) December 30, 2020
All this comes on the backdrop of massive institutional inflows into Bitcoin (BTC). Wall Street’s some of the biggest hedge funds, insurance giants, and veteran investors have shown interest in BTC by increasing their exposure to it. While we would like the Bitcoin rally to continue further, some analysts think that Bitcoin will be ‘peaking-out’ in early 2021 and provide a better opportunity for investors to buy on dips.
Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.
