The Zhitong Finance App learned that on February 29, the price of Bitcoin once soared to more than 64,000 US dollars, hitting the highest level since November 2021. Since this year, the price of Bitcoin has increased by more than 40%, and the performance is impressive.
The current Bitcoin price spike is due to investors' optimism that spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will be approved, and that the halving of Bitcoin will lead to a decrease in supply. On the one hand, Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continue to flow in, providing strong demand support for the market. On the other hand, the upcoming “halving event” has also brought upward momentum to the Bitcoin price. It is expected that in April of this year, Bitcoin will usher in a new round of “halving”, that is, mining rewards will be halved (rewards per block will be reduced from 6.25 coins to 3.125 coins), which will reduce the supply of Bitcoin, which is expected to drive up the price.
Bitcoin ETFs continued to be popular after the “regular army” entered the market. On January 11, the US Securities Regulatory Commission (SEC) officially approved 11 Bitcoin spot ETF applications, including institutions such as BlackRock. From February 12 to February 16, the net inflow of 11 Bitcoin ETFs exceeded US$2.27 billion. Some industry insiders said that on February 20, the volume of 9 Bitcoin spot ETFs was close to 2 billion US dollars, the highest level since the first day of trading on January 11.
According to information, Hong Kong has approved a future-type Bitcoin ETF. Currently, there are two listed products, Southern East England Bitcoin Futures and Samsung Bitcoin Futures. Their assets are relatively small, and each fund's AUM is less than 100 million US dollars. According to Wind data, the net worth of the Southern East England Bitcoin Futures ETF increased by 134.51% in 2023. By the close of trading on February 27, the net fund value of the Southern East England Bitcoin Futures ETF had once again risen by nearly 30% this year.
James Harte (James Harte), an analyst at multi-asset brokerage firm Tickmill Group, said Bitcoin prices are likely to continue to rise in the short term as large investors and other key players put their cash back into Bitcoin before the April halving event. There are strong reasons for continuing this year's gains. Some market commentators have even predicted that Bitcoin is expected to break the $100,000 mark by the end of the year.
CITIC Securities said that the US Securities Regulatory Commission (SEC) has regulated cryptocurrency trading methods to a certain extent through the Bitcoin ETF. It is expected that the cryptocurrency market, which was dominated by retail investors in the past, will change to some extent, and more liquidity is expected to bring about short-term prosperity in cryptocurrencies in the first half of 2024.
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Meitu (01357): The company purchased Bitcoin and Ethereum a few years ago. As of June 2023, the company held 940.497 bitcoins and 31,000 ethers. The total cost of holding the two coins accounted for about 10% of the total assets. According to the costs disclosed in the semi-annual report, holding Bitcoin earned 161 million yuan and holding Ethereum earned 288 million yuan, making a total profit of 450 million yuan.
Xinhuo Technology Holdings (01611): The company used the name Huobi Technology and is currently one of the largest cryptocurrency platforms in the world. Xinhuo Technology Holdings mainly provides virtual asset transactions and technical solution services. Among them, virtual asset trading includes providing customers with virtual asset loan asset management and providing an OTC trading platform to act as an exchange.
Oke Cloud Chain (01499): According to the 2024 semi-annual report, the company “heavily stocks” digital currencies. Its digital assets are as high as HK$800 million, accounting for 75% of total assets. According to the disclosure, the company holds 1,725 bitcoins and 6571 ethers. The total value accounts for 43% of total assets, and 21.7% of the assets hold stablecoins.
OSL Group (00863): The company participated in UBS Group's pilot issuance of investment-grade warrants tokens in Hong Kong, China, and covered the entire product issuance cycle. In this project, UBS Group uses the Ethereum public chain to issue share-linked subscription tokens to OSL digital asset securities.