Crypto
A Bitcoin ATM in Hong Kong...
A bitcoin ATM in Hong Kong (S3studio/Getty Images)
Uptober

Bitcoin and its spot ETFs continue to hit new records

On Monday, bitcoin crossed $126,000 for the first time while bitcoin ETFs saw $1.2 billion in inflows.

Bitcoin just keeps notching all-time highs. Just two days following its previous all-time high, the asset passed $126,000 for the first time on Monday, a more than 100% jump from where it stood a year ago at $62,800.

JPMorgan analysts wrote that increased institutional interest combined with the “debasement trade,” including macro uncertainty, “waning confidence in fiat currencies in certain emerging markets,” and “persistently high government deficits across major economies,” are continuing to fuel the rally, though bitcoin has sold off on Tuesday morning and is hovering around $123,000.

Sam Callahan, director of bitcoin strategy and research at newly listed OranjeBTC, told Sherwood News that investors are increasingly gravitating to hard money as perceived risks around fiscal sustainability and currency debasement rise.

“Bitcoin at record highs is consistent with a world where global debt is sitting around $340 trillion and major governments continue to run multitrillion-dollar deficits,” he said.

Bitcoin ETFs also saw record inflows on Monday, amassing over $1.2 billion, the largest amount since their inception in January 2024. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust took in the bulk of yesterday’s inflows, racking up $969.95 million, SoSoValue data shows.

BlackRock’s fund is nearing $100 billion in assets under management, and is also BlackRock’s most profitable ETF, according to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, who noted in a post on X that the rest of the firm’s top 10 ETFs are decades old, while IBIT is not even 2.

David Siemer, CEO and cofounder of Wave Digital Assets, said that ETF inflows continue to be a massive catalyst, pulling in fresh institutional capital at an unprecedented pace.

“At the same time, the Fed’s pivot toward rate cuts has weakened the dollar and boosted risk appetite across the board, with crypto benefiting disproportionately. Add to macro uncertainty surrounding the US government shutdown, and you’ve got an environment where even modest demand creates outsized moves,” Siemer said.

VanEck’s head of digital assets research, Matthew Sigel, predicted in a post on X that bitcoin “should reach half of gold’s market cap after the next halving... At today’s record gold price, that implies an equivalent value of $644,000 per BTC.” That said, the next halving will likely happen in 2028, so time will tell.

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10%

Ethereum treasury companies and ETFs hold more than 10% of the cryptocurrency’s total supply of 120.7 million tokens.

Corporate firms own roughly 5.7 million, while ethereum reserves for ETFs stand at 6.8 million tokens, worth more than $59 billion, per data from analytics platform StrategicETHReserve.xyz.

BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink Gaming have taken the top spots among treasury entities, amassing about 3.7 million ethereum tokens worth roughly $17.4 billion. SharpLink Gaming recently announced that its unrealized profits have reached $900 million since the rollout of its ethereum treasury strategy in June. 

Meanwhile, BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF has secured the lead among spot ethereum ETFs with $18.6 billion in net assets. So far in October, $803.1 million of inflows have collectively entered the investment vehicles. 

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Bitcoin, ethereum get bullish 12-month price targets from Citi

Citi updated its price targets for the two largest cryptocurrencies in a note Wednesday, predicting a 12-month target of $181,000 for bitcoin and $5,440 for ethereum.

While overall, Citi analyst Alex Saunders wrote that the firm is “more positive on Bitcoin compared to Ether, as it captures an outsized portion of incremental flows into crypto markets,” he trimmed bitcoin’s year-end price target to $133,000 from $135,000, citing a stronger dollar and weaker gold price as offsetting factors.

Ethereum, on the other hand, got a price target bump up to $4,500 from $4,300 by year-end due to flows surging following “stablecoin regulation increasing interest in the network and tokenization and the rise of DATs.”

Many of the splashiest entries into the digital asset treasury (DAT) space have been ethereum-based treasuries lately, with companies like BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink Gaming launching DATs and stockpiling huge amounts of ethereum in just the second half of this year.

Bitmine now holds 2,650,900 ETH worth $11.7 billion, while SharpLink has 838,728 ETH worth $3.7 billion. To put that in context, Strategy, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, has 640,031 BTC worth $47.3 billion.

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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.