Bitcoin has returned to growth and reached $45,000. What's next?

Experts told Soft4bro the goals for the bitcoin rate after reaching $45,000.

The first cryptocurrency returned to the $45,000 mark for the first time since the beginning of January. Experts talked about the prerequisites for growth and further market movement scenarios.

Bitcoin exceeded $45,000 for the first time since mid-January. The last time the leading cryptocurrency traded above this level was on January 12, the day after the launch of bitcoin-based spot ETFs in the United States.

After the January peak of $48,900, bitcoin lost about 20% and then only partially recovered, spending some time in the $42,000–$43,000 range without significant volatility.

BTC/USD

45,115 +1,634 (3.76%)

The rise in the price of bitcoin was driven by a decline in the dollar index and rallies in stock indexes, explains financial analyst Vladislav Antonov of BitRiver. The S&P 500 rose by 0.86% to 4,995.06 points, reaching a record high.

"Buyers passed the $43,500 level, but they are rushing with growth. The price has been in a sideways trend for eight days, which is very long for the crypto market. The spring has loosened, but the growth was weak," comments Antonov. "Short positions in bitcoin totaling $77.7 million were liquidated yesterday. If sellers remain inactive by the end of the week, buyers will attempt to break through to $46,200. If the day closes below $43,200, we can expect a slide back to the $40,800 level."

Spot bitcoin ETFs have demonstrated stability, attracting inflows of funds and outpacing outflows from the GBTC fund for the ninth consecutive day, explains the analyst. As of February 7, bitcoin ETFs collectively hold more than 187,000 BTC.

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) has existed as a closed trust for accredited investors since 2013 and has been able to accumulate about $25 billion in assets. In January alone, regulators allowed it to convert into a full-fledged spot exchange-traded fund (ETF), while BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, and eight other issuers launching such funds effectively opened them from scratch.

Since the start of trading in ETF shares on exchanges, there has been a significant outflow of funds from GBTC on each trading day, while analytical services have recorded movements of thousands of bitcoins from Grayscale's public addresses to the Coinbase exchange for several days in a row. Analysts attributed the decline in the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to the outflow of billions of dollars from GBTC.

"Many GBTC shareholders rushed to take profits. Almost a month after the start of trading, the instrument for selling vanished," comments Roman Nekrasov, co-founder of the ENCRY Foundation. "Despite the decrease in trading volume in the U.S. spot bitcoin ETF market, investors began to feel the long-awaited inflow of institutional money through the purchase of cryptocurrencies by issuers."

He believes that demand for bitcoin is also being driven by purchases of the cryptocurrency by private investors ahead of an expected rally after the so-called halving and the positive effect of monetary policy in the United States already priced in.

As regional director of the CommEX exchange, Anton Toropcev notes, bitcoin has "moved out of the accumulation zone into the overbought zone," breaking through the resistance level around $44,000. After the publication of new macro data in the United States, bitcoin will either return to the $41,000–$43,000 range or consolidate above $44,000. In that case, the next resistance level will be around $46,500.

Not only Bitcoin

The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum (ETH), also reached a two-week high of $2,440 on February 7-8, adding over 3% in price over the day. "Ether" also steadily declined in price after reaching a local maximum on January 12, when the coin rose to $2,719 amid investors' expectations of approval of Ethereum spot ETFs by U.S. regulators. BlackRock, Grayscale, Ark Invest, and Fidelity Investments have filed applications for such funds.

The new surge in ETH price also occurred against the backdrop of the submission of an updated joint ETF application by 21 Shares and Ark Invest under the management of Cathie Wood. The document, in particular, updated data on the mechanism for redeeming shares of the future ETF and information on the possibility of placing the fund's coins in external staking services.

Ethereum developers have also successfully launched an important update for the ecosystem, codenamed Dencun, in the test environment. If implemented successfully, fees for users in network infrastructure projects should decrease by about ten times