Bitcoin Surges Past $61,000 Amid ETF Inflows

Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a significant rally, surpassing the $61,000 mark early on Tuesday, driven by robust inflow activity in U.S.-based spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that hold the cryptocurrency. According to data from SoSoValue, Bitcoin ETFs recorded an impressive total of over $61 million in net inflows this month, marking the highest level of activity since the staggering $192 million recorded on August 8.

Leading the charge in inflows was BlackRock’s IBIT ETF, which attracted $92 million, while the Bitwise BITB ETF experienced outflows of $25 million. In a noteworthy development, Japan’s Metaplanet announced a new BTC purchase valued at $3.4 million (approximately 500 million Japanese yen), which brought its total Bitcoin holdings to 360.368 BTC.

Other major cryptocurrencies followed Bitcoin’s lead, with XRP and BNB Chain’s BNB both experiencing gains of over 7%. Additionally, Solana’s SOL and Cardano’s ADA recorded increases of 4%. However, Toncoin (TON) saw a slight decline of 0.8% over the past 24 hours. The CoinDesk 20 (CD20), which tracks the performance of the largest and most liquid digital assets, saw an overall increase of 4.25%.

Market predictions from Polymarket bettors indicate expectations for price stability, suggesting a 66% chance that Bitcoin will remain above the $60,000 threshold by the end of the week. In a related development, Dogecoin (DOGE) experienced a 5% surge following a post by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, who shared an AI-generated image referencing the token on X. Historically, DOGE tends to react favorably to Musk’s mentions, although resulting price spikes are often short-lived.

Meanwhile, PoliFi tokens remained stagnant as trader interest appeared to wane. The Trump-themed MAGA token saw a slight decline of 0.3%, with a trading volume of $2.5 million, as per CoinGecko data. On Polymarket, in a notable political betting landscape, Kamala Harris currently leads Donald Trump with a narrow margin of 50%-49%, as the Presidential election betting contract approaches a total of $650 million.

As market catalysts seem scarce on this Tuesday, some traders are looking ahead to potential movements later in the week, especially as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak at the highly anticipated Jackson Hole symposium. “This week’s market expectations are heavily focused on the Jackson Hole symposium, where key discussions around monetary policy will take place,” noted Abra Prime in a market update via email. “The narrative centers around BTC ETFs and their correlation with the stock market.”

Abra Prime forecasts a week of relative price stability for Bitcoin, suggesting that BTC may fluctuate between $56,000 and $62,000, with significant trading volume likely concentrated around the $58,000 to $60,000 range. Powell is expected to signal a potential pivot towards lower borrowing costs next month, a move that, according to Bloomberg, has historically fostered bullish sentiment among traders by facilitating cheaper access to capital, which tends to stimulate growth in riskier investment sectors.

However, short-term bearish sentiment persists among some market participants due to the recent decision to withdraw proposed options for Bitcoin ETFs. “In the past 72 hours, both the NYSE and NASDAQ have retracted their applications to list Bitcoin ETF options, which poses additional challenges for mainstream adoption in the near term,” commented Augustine Fan, head of insights at SOFA.org, in a message on Telegram. He further noted that traditional finance (TradFi) continues to exhibit caution regarding ETF investments in Ethereum (ETH) due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding staking legalities, which has contributed to ETH’s underperformance relative to Bitcoin over the past week.