Bitcoin (BTC) soared above the $59,000 mark during the early hours of Wednesday trading in Europe, marking a 5% increase over the past 24 hours and propelling its market capitalization to $1.2 trillion.
The surge in price coincided with robust activity in spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which collectively amassed over $3 billion in trading volumes on Tuesday, bolstering demand. Additionally, some traders highlighted the forthcoming bitcoin halving event, slated for April, as a fresh narrative fueling a pre-halving rally.
According to Coinglass data, futures positions betting on lower bitcoin prices saw $25 million in liquidations since the start of the Asian trading session, potentially contributing to the upward pressure on prices.
In other segments of the crypto market, major tokens such as ether (ETH), Solana’s SOL, and XRP observed gains of up to 3% since the commencement of Asian trading hours, as indicated by data from CoinGecko.
Meanwhile, the fear and greed index, a sentiment gauge reflecting the pace of asset movement relative to underlying fundamentals, reached a reading of 82 on Wednesday, signaling extreme greed and hitting its highest level in over a year.
This index, graded on a scale from 0 to 100, portrays 0 as the epitome of fear and 100 as the pinnacle of greed. In a greedy environment, euphoria tends to dominate, which according to the developers of the index, suggests that the market is ripe for a correction.
