Bitcoin: 2024

2024 is coming to a close.

With just days left in the year, bitcoin sits near +114% price appreciation year-to-date. A selloff across equity markets on Friday are putting a damper on what has otherwise been a banner year for bitcoin and traditional markets alike.

Highlights

The year’s biggest highlights:

• Bitcoin ETFs

• 4th Bitcoin Halving

• New All-time Highs

Bitcoin ETFs

In the US, nearly a dozen spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds launched in early January and helped push BTC up towards $60,000-70,000.

One post to revisit:

• Early Thoughts on the ETFs

It took time for the impact of the ETFs to hit but we eventually saw what has become the most successful ETF launch in history.

BlackRock’s IBIT product now holds more than 550,000 BTC or about 2.6% of all bitcoin. The next four largest US spot bitcoin ETFs hold a combined 500,000 BTC and we’re seeing increased inflows over time.

Validation

Whatever you think of bitcoin or the US spot bitcoin ETFs, their existence, and success, is validation from traditional finance.

Retail and smaller family offices remain the primary buyers of the ETFs but larger institutions and funds are taking notice.

The longer time goes on, the harder both the ETFs and bitcoin more broadly will be to ignore.

4th Halving

The fourth bitcoin halving hit in April. Halvings occur roughly every four years and cut the amount of bitcoin rewarded to miners for their efforts processing transactions and securing the network in half.

Halvings reinforce bitcoin’s scarcity.

One post to revisit:

• Numbers Behind the Halving

Miners now earn just 3.125 BTC per block, meaning just a total of 450 new bitcoin are released into global markets each day.

Supply is limited.

All-Time Highs

Fast forward six months.

The impact of the halving tends to hit markets between 6 to 18 months after the halving and that’s almost exactly what we saw to the day.