Bitcoin has surpassed $50,000

Cryptocurrencies got off to a strong start last week. Bitcoin (BTC) started Monday above $50,000 and ethereum (ETH) started above $2,600. However, after Asian markets closed, both digital assets seemed to weaken.

Be that as it may, bitcoin is showing a bullish trend last seen a year ago after hitting an intraday high of $48,700, a level not seen since December 2021.

With Monday's gains, the reigning cryptocurrency has now risen for 7 consecutive days, something it hasn't achieved since last January. That's when it started to regain ground after falling in the wake of the collapse of FTX and other major companies in 2022.

Bitcoin managed to shrug off the downward pressure exerted by Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and ride the wave of spot ETFs. They managed to raise a net $2.2 billion despite strong outflows from GBTC.

In fact, bitcoin ETFs, not counting the Grayscale product, already hold more tokens than MicroStrategy, the largest institutional bitcoin holder, and currently control about 5% of the total bitcoin supply that may exist.

So the effect that the market expected from these exchange-traded funds is being confirmed, albeit a bit later than expected: the price increase is due to institutional investor interest.

James Seyffarth, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, noted that the funds attracted more than $400 million in net inflows last Friday. It was the third good day for these assets since they were approved on Jan. 11.

The BitMEX platform also notes that there were negative flows on only 6 days out of the 22 in which the funds traded, despite GBTC net outflows exceeding $6.3 billion.

"I thought the Big Nine would weaken a bit as GBTC outflows slowed, but it is strengthening. Another 500 million for the day bleeds into GBTC, up to 2.7 billion net flows and $10 billion in total volume. IBIT (ETF from BlackRock) is now at 4 billion assets under management, 500 million in volume, for the second day ahead of GBTC," notes Eric Balchunas, ETF analyst at Bloomberg.

The expert is very optimistic about this data, as it usually takes a newborn koin 5 to 10 years to approach the king or kings of liquidity in its category.