Bitcoin (BTC) has bounced back, surpassing $70,000 for the first time in a week after a period of negative flows into spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs). On March 25, the BTC price rose from an opening of $67,212 to an intra-day high of $70,306, and it was trading at $70,268 at the time of publication, representing a 7.5% increase over the last 24 hours.
This recovery comes after a price downturn that saw Bitcoin drop as low as $60,771, which was accompanied by negative ETF inflows. The recent surge in BTC price metrics could be an indication of a positive trend.
According to a report by CoinShares, last week marked the end of a 7-week cycle of inflows into crypto investment products, with investors withdrawing over $942 million. This marked the first outflow following a record 7-week run of inflows totaling $12.3 billion.
The large outflows were attributed to the recent decline in crypto prices, which resulted in a $10 billion reduction in total assets under management (AuM). However, the AuM still remained above prior cycle highs at $88 billion. Bitcoin accounted for 96% of the outflows, totaling $904 million, while short-bitcoin also saw minor outflows totaling $3.7 million.
The spot Bitcoin ETFs witnessed large outflows last week, which were likely driven by bankrupt lender Genesis selling GBTC shares, according to Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart.
There has also been a notable surge in Bitcoin’s Age Consumed metric, which tracks the movement of previously idle BTC coins. The metric showed that the number of dormant BTC addresses moving BTC reached 162.89 million on March 23, the highest in over two years. This suggests that previously dormant addresses are re-entering circulation, indicating a revival in network activity.
Altcoins performed well last week, with net inflows of $16 million. Polkadot (DOT), Avalanche (AVAX), and Litecoin (LTC) were the most notable altcoins with inflows of $5 million, $2.9 million, and $2 million, respectively. Some large-cap altcoins, such as BNB, DOGE, and TON, have outperformed Bitcoin over the last week, producing gains of 7%, 20%, and 46% respectively.
At the time of publication, the total crypto market was valued at $1.191 trillion, 43% below the peak reached in November 2021. The altcoin market still favors the upside, as indicated by the weekly relative strength index in the overbought region at 83.
Despite the positive performance of altcoins, BTC still dominates the market at 51.77%, and the Altcoin Season Index by Blockchain Center suggests that the altcoin season is not yet here, as it has dropped to 49.
It is important to note that this article does not provide investment advice or recommendations, and readers should conduct their own research before making any investment or trading decisions.