Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, surged by 3 % on Tuesday, reaching an all-time high of $62,218.94 as of 12.00 PM EAT with a market cap of $1.173 trillion.
Effect of Coinbase IPO on Bitcoin
Analyst have attributed the surge in the digital currency to the Coinbase direct listing on Wednesday. The listing, expected to take place Wednesday (April 14), will see Coinbase cementing its position as the big name in cryptocurrency, with it becoming a symbol of both the promise and risk of digital currency.
Coinbase said it expects to report first-quarter profits totaling $730 million to $800 million, which is over double what it earned in all of 2020, with revenue in the first three months of 2021 also likely surpassed the $1.3 billion total for last year.
BTC has more than doubled in 2021 due to renewed interest in digital currencies supported by huge amounts of stimulus from governments and investors such as Tesla, Microstrategy and Blackrock, among others.
The digital currency rally comes amid high volatility and the constant falling of BTC supply at the exchange. The BTC liquidity at exchanges has constantly been dropping as institutional players continue to move their holdings to cold wallets.
BTC miners are also willing to give their newly mined supplies and resolved them to HODLing. As per market analyst Willy Woo, the number of BTC HODLers is continuing to increase significantly.
This comes after MicroStrategy, a major backer of bitcoin, has said as of this week that its non-employee directors will now get fees for their services in bitcoin. The Company said the fees for directors would be converted from the U.S. dollar to BTC via a payment processor at the payment time.
Last year, the company spent time steadily gaining bitcoin after its first investment in August when the crypto was soaring in value. Since then, MicroStrategy has amassed multiple other purchases of digital asset.
As a result, MicroStrategy now holds about 91,579 BTC at a total purchase price of $2.23 billion, at an average price of $24,311 per coin.
Read also; Coinbase Reports $1.8B Q1 Revenue, Ahead of its April 14 Direct Listing
