Bitcoin’s (BTC) price rally continued, setting a new all-time high of $72,356 on Coinbase. Bitcoin price quickly blew past the $71,000 level, and it has benefitted from inflows to spot BTC ETFs and increased investor interest in Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin price on Coinbase. Source: TradingView

Let’s look into the reasons why Bitcoin price is up today.

Spot BTC ETF momentum boosts market sentiment

As Bitcoin’s market cap reached an all-time high, investor sentiment turned to “extreme greed,” as measured by the Crypto Fear and Greed index. The level of greed on March 11 was the highest seen since Feb. 20, 2021.

Fear and greed index. Source: Newhedge

Despite a bevy of macro headwinds, Bitcoin price continues to push higher, with its volatility and open interest increasing.

Even with the rapid Bitcoin price growth, BTC continues to leave exchanges. On March 11, exchanges held only 2.3 million Bitcoin. This marks the lowest level of Bitcoin on all exchanges since April 2018.

Bitcoin balance on all exchanges. Source: Glassnode

Related: Is measuring blockchain transactions per second (TPS) stupid in 2024? Big Questions

ETFs open the door for major institutional investor inflows

When the U.S. stock markets opened, trading volumes for spot Bitcoin ETF vehicles started strong on March 11. Within the first 30 minutes, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF saw $500 million in trades. Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETF saw over $217 million in trading within the same period.

According to CoinShares data, institutional investors pushed $10.3 billion into crypto year to date in 2024. For context, for the entire year of 2021, crypto products set a record with $10.6 billion in yearly inflows. In the past week, crypto investment products set a weekly record, with over $2.7 billion flowing into the market.

Crypto asset institutional investor inflow. Source: CoinShares

Of the $11.3 billion pushed to crypto assets in 2024, over $9.9 billion has flowed to Bitcoin specifically. The total assets under management (AUM) for Bitcoin dwarfs other digital assets, with $71.8 billion currently deployed.

Crypto asset institutional investor asset flow. Source: CoinShares

Related: Bitcoin bull Cathie Wood: ARK Invest BTC price target ‘well above’ $1M

Retail investors' interest in Bitcoin increases

Institutional investors are not the only investor cohort showing increased interest in Bitcoin. The number of Bitcoin wallets holding non-zero amounts of BTC has remained above 51 million for the entirety of 2024.

Non-zero Bitcoin wallets. Source: Glassnode

Not only are there more Bitcoin wallets than ever before, but because of consistent month-over-month price growth, nearly all addresses are in profit.

Bitcoin address in a loss. Source: Look into Bitcoin

The spike in non-zero wallets, Bitcoin on exchange exodus and continued institutional inflow suggests strong bullish optimism for BTC price.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.