Bitcoin Soars To $38,000 Amid Spot ETF Approval Anticipation And MicroStrategy's BTC Accumulation

Bitcoin, the world's first-ever crypto asset, broke through the $38,000 price level Thursday evening as MicroStrategy continued its bullish acquisition of the "king of crypto" amid hopes of multiple spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) approvals.

Bitcoin traded in the green zone late Thursday night and claimed the $38,000 price level, which continued through Friday early morning.

BTC has seen a rally in the last month. It was trading in the green zone at $38,653.94 as of 5:35 a.m. ET Friday, with a 24-hour trading volume down by 1.89% at $20,799,860,859. This represents a huge 2.5% gain in the past 24 hours and a 3.3% increase in value over the past seven days.

Bitcoin's circulating supply stands at 19,557,800 BTC with its value climbing by 2.62% at a $756,863,755,918 market cap, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The surge in the price of BTC is credited to the hype surrounding potential spot ETF approvals by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

ETF analysts maintained the 90% odds on spot Bitcoin ETF approvals by January 2024. Standard Chartered also agreed with it while forecasting that the "king of crypto" would trade at $100,000 by the end of 2024.

The surge also came after Bitcoin bull MicroStrategy announced that it spent nearly $600 million to acquire Bitcoins, making its total crypto stash equivalent to 0.9% of the crypto asset's circulating supply.

"MicroStrategy has acquired an additional 16,130 BTC for ~$593.3 million at an average price of $36,785 per #bitcoin. As of 11/29/23, @MicroStrategy now holds 174,530 $BTC acquired for ~$5.28 billion at an average price of $30,252 per Bitcoin. $MSTR," MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor wrote on X.

The price rally of Bitcoin, which started in October, also fueled speculations that it would touch $40,000 or higher by the end of 2023, considering that centralized crypto exchange platforms recently saw a substantial exodus of crypto assets in their platforms.

Data from blockchain data and intelligence provider Glassnode revealed that only 37,000 BTC, worth around $1.4 billion, have been moved from exchanges since Nov. 17, indicating investors' intent to take direct custody of their crypto assets.