Bitcoin’s hot streak ahead of its “halving event” — which is expected to drive its price to new highs — continued Wednesday, reportedly hitting a new all-time record of $73,679.
The price was reported by crypto media outlet Cointelegraph using data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.
Earlier this week, bitcoin hit its highest price to date — over $72,000 Monday morning — after the U.K.’s finance watchdog said it would allow investment exchanges to list crypto-linked exchange-traded notes (or ETNs). The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said the products would only be available for professional investors, including investment firms and credit institutions that were already allowed to operate in the financial market. Retail investors are still banned from buying crypto-linked ETNs or derivatives due to the high risk.
Bitcoin broke its all-time record in more than two years earlier this month, briefly surging to $69,191.95 (although when adjusted for inflation, bitcoin was actually worth $7,334 less than it was at its record in 2021).
The January approval of spot bitcoin ETFs by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which opened the cryptocurrency market to new investors who wanted to trade the digital coins with less risk, is partly behind its surging prices. Over $6 billion has entered the cryptocurrency market since trading started for spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Investors are looking forward to next month, when bitcoin’s “halving event” is expected to keep its hot streak going for the next few months. The event happens every four years; in a halving, bitcoin miners gain only half the reward for minting new bitcoin, meaning they will get 3.125 bitcoin instead of 6.25. The event, which is written into bitcoin’s code to safeguard the coin from inflation, will keep going until it reaches a cap of 21 million bitcoin in circulation.
Three previous halving events have seen the price of bitcoin rise in the following months. The latest event in May 2020 saw the digital coin’s price, which was around $8,750, increase 79% six months later, and 547% a year later.