On December 16, for the first time in history, the price of Bitcoin reached $20,000. Just over two weeks after smashing its previous all-time record, the historic milestone occurs.
At the same time due to many variables that could make BTC soar even higher, this rally is different from 2017’s. These include rising institutional demand, the growing belief of investors that BTC is a value store, and better fundamentals of the network.
Data indicated in December 2017 that institutional and mainstream buyers were behind the Bitcoin surge. CME BTC futures had just launched at the time and there was a shortage of retail investment vehicles. As such, institutional buyers, which came to an abrupt halt after a heavy whale-induced sell-off, largely sparked the rebound.
An explosive rise in trading volume is being seen this time by institutional investor-focused platforms. The CME BTC futures market, for example recently notched an open interest of $1.27 billion, placing only behind OKEx as the second highest in the global Bitcoin market.
For a short-term approach, institutional investors aren’t likely to invest in Bitcoin. It is more and more seen by many as a digital store of value and an alternative to gold. The spike in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust premium, as Cointelegraph reported earlier, indicates that institutions are steadily searching for BTC exposure and paying for the privilege above spot market price.
