ETFs and 'halving' have spiked euphoria in bitcoin.
Crypto investors are used to volatility—with values of the non-corporeal currencies rising and falling almost constantly in real time—but the doubling and at one point tripling of Bitcoin in the past six months caught a lot of attention, especially given the waning euphoria over the asset since its languishing under $17,000 (per coin) at the start of 2023.
But Bitcoin rallied to match its previous price peaks above $60,000 in February—and suddenly what Warren Buffet dismissed last year as a “gambling token” even has his own Berkshire Hathaway folding crypto-friendly companies into its interests. Bitcoin’s surge is partly down to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval in January for some investment companies to offer bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), allowing investors access to diversified funds that include portions of cryptocurrencies without having to buy directly into the crypto itself.
But what’s really got the bitcoin-curious excited is this spring’s quadrennial “halving” of the currency—the automatic reduction of new coins entering circulation that occurs every four years. The halving of bitcoin is a built-in feature of the currency intended to curb inflation and further imbed a scarcity of the coins (there will only ever be 21 million coins in circulation, according to the bitcoin model). The first time bitcoin halved in 2012, its value spiked by 30,000% (you read that correctly). In 2016 it gained 800%; in 2020, 700%. (Of course, crypto’s volatility is such that it lost most of its 2020 gains by the end of 2022.)
The next halving is expected to take place mid-April. Let the euphoria begin.
