With hope surrounding the potential licensing of exchange-traded spot bitcoin funds, the world’s largest cryptocurrency kicked off the New Year with a bang as Bitcoin surged beyond $45,000 on Tuesday for the first time since April 2022.
With its highest year performance since 2020, Bitcoin gained 156% last year and reached a 21-month high of $45,532.
It is still far from the record high of $69,000 it achieved in November 2021, even though it was up 2.5% at $45,318 as of late.
After rising 91% in 2023, ether, the token associated with the Ethereum blockchain network, was 1.45% higher at $2,386 on Tuesday.
According to Reuters, the main concern among investors has been whether the U.S. securities regulator will soon authorize a spot bitcoin ETF, which would attract billions of dollars in investments and open up the bitcoin market to millions more people.
