Bitcoin Price Surges to $62,500, Up Nearly 50% in 2024.

Bitcoin experienced a significant surge on Thursday, surpassing the $62,500 mark. This increase can be attributed to heightened institutional involvement and speculation surrounding the upcoming halving event scheduled for April. The leading cryptocurrency reached a new two-year high on Wednesday before undergoing a rapid reversal. In other news, Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital witnessed a decline on Thursday morning following the release of their Q4 report on Wednesday. Additionally, popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase encountered technical difficulties due to a substantial influx of traffic.

Bitcoin Achieves New Two-Year High.

Bitcoin is currently being traded around $62,600 after achieving a peak of $64,037 on Wednesday, surpassing previous highs witnessed in late 2021. According to data from CoinDesk, the largest cryptocurrency has experienced a growth rate of over 5% within the past 24 hours. In mid-February, Bitcoin’s market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in more than two years.

Since the start of the year, Bitcoin has witnessed a 49% increase, with most of the gains occurring after the introduction of spot bitcoin ETFs in January. Presently, it is trading at about 10% below its all-time high of $68,990, reached in November 2021.

Ethereum has also seen positive growth on Thursday, with trading prices hovering around $3,440 and reaching as high as $3,520, surpassing levels seen in April 2022. The second-largest cryptocurrency has observed an approximately 54% increase in value in 2024.

The recently launched spot bitcoin ETFs experienced a collective surge of over 3.5% early on Thursday. On Wednesday, these ETF shares witnessed a broad increase of nearly 6%.

Since their launch on January 11, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has attracted the highest inflows, accumulating approximately $7.15 billion as of February 28, according to BitMEX Research data. The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) ranks second with $4.72 billion in inflows. The ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) follows closely with $1.563 billion, while the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) has received approximately $1.114 billion.

By the end of February, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) experienced outflows amounting to nearly $7.8 billion, although at a slowing pace. Some of these outflows may be attributed to Grayscale’s higher management fees compared to the new ETF competitors. While GBTC currently charges a 1.5% management fee, other spot bitcoin ETFs have lowered their fees to approximately 0.3%. Nevertheless, Grayscale remains the leader in terms of total assets managed, with $26.429 billion, followed by iShares Bitcoin Trust with $9.147 billion.

Despite the outflows from GBTC, the new ETFs have recorded significant inflows totaling $7.399 billion since their launch, as reported by BitMEX Research. Marathon Digital Earnings Marathon Digital (MARA) announced its Q4 earnings of 66 cents per share, outperforming the loss of $3.13 per share in the previous year, and surpassing FactSet estimates of 9 cents per share. Revenue also experienced a substantial increase, rising by 452% to $156.8 million, exceeding the forecasted $153.6 million. However, excluding the impacts of new accounting rules for crypto assets by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), Marathon reported a Q4 loss of 2 cents per share, falling short of FactSet’s EPS expectations of 4 cents.

In Q4, Marathon’s bitcoin production increased by 172% to reach 4,242 bitcoins. The company highlighted that it sold 56% of its bitcoin production during the quarter to cover operating costs.

For the entire year, Marathon saw a 210% surge in bitcoin production, totaling 12,852 BTC. This growth was fueled by a 253% increase in the company’s hash rate, reaching 24.7 exahash per second (EH/s). The hash rate reflects the computational power required for bitcoin mining. Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel revealed plans to further expand the company’s hash rate to 35 to 37 EH/s by 2024, with a long-term goal of reaching 50 EH/s by the end of 2025.

Marathon also announced the launch of Anduro, a platform built on the bitcoin network that enables developers and members of the crypto community to create their own applications.

In January, Marathon produced 1,084 bitcoins, a 58% increase compared to the previous year. However, this figure represented a 42% decline from December’s production. The company disclosed that total network rewards decreased by 14% month-over-month due to a decline in transaction fees. As of January 31, Marathon Digital held a total of 15,741 unrestricted bitcoins. The company’s combined unrestricted cash and bitcoin holdings amounted to $988.7 million at month-end.

On Thursday, MARA stock initially dropped by nearly 9%, and on Wednesday, the shares only managed to recover 2.4% after experiencing more than 8% surge in premarket trading.

Over the past month, Marathon Digital stock has risen approximately 81%, reaching its highest point at the close of Wednesday’s trading session.

Coinbase (COIN) saw a slight increase of 1.5% on Thursday. On Wednesday, the crypto exchange’s gains were reduced to less than 1% following reports of technical issues caused by a surge in traffic. COIN stock had initially risen by 6.4% during early Wednesday trading before the announcement.Coinbase Support has acknowledged the issue, affirming that certain users may notice a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts and encounter errors when buying or selling. The support team is presently investigating the issue and will provide an update in due course. Nevertheless, users are reassured that their assets remain secure. The technical difficulties appear to have primarily impacted retail accounts, with many users on social media reporting difficulties accessing their accounts or using the Coinbase app.

CEO Brian Armstrong addressed the situation on X (formerly known as Twitter). He explained that the company is currently dealing with a significant surge in traffic and expressed apologies for any inconvenience users may experience. The team is actively working to resolve the problem.