Bitcoin Hits New High; Surpasses RM300,000 Mark

Bitcoin has hit a new all time high, trading at over RM320,000 after a 22% weeklong rally. This comes a week after hitting its previous high of RM270,000.

The world’s most popular cryptocurrency isn’t the only one seeing a significant increase in value. Etherium has also been trading at a high of RM17,000 – also surpassing it’s all time high price.

Scarlett Chai, Luno’s country manager for Malaysia, says, “This bullish momentum for bitcoin is widely attributed to the positive sentiment surrounding the approval of bitcoin spot ETFs by the SEC in the US, coupled with significant inflows into these bitcoin funds with the highest inflow on Wednesday (28 February 2024) at USD673 million”.

Eleven bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs) were approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in January. Since then, the value of bitcoin has risen over 40% this year alone.

Accompanying this increase in demand is the impending bitcoin halving event. There is a finite amount of bitcoin that can ever be mined, which will eventually lead miners to get no returns for their efforts.

To delay this happening, the amount of bitcoin gained through mining is halved every four years. Meaning that the amount of new bitcoin entering the market is dramatically reduced.

The last halving happened in 2020.

Chai added “While the rally presents an opportunity for the Malaysians to increase gains, as the leading regulated digital asset exchange in the country we hope and  encourage investors to invest responsibly and sensibly.