Bitcoin Steady At $71,000 as Open Interest Swells to Nearly $39 Billion

By Tarang Khaitan

Derivatives traders have taken a bullish stance on Bitcoin, as open interest in the leading cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of $38.76 billion, according to derivatives analytics platform Coinglass.

This change in Bitcoin’s open interest represents a 6.7% increase from its previous all-time high, which stood at 36.31 billion in March earlier this year. Meanwhile, Bitcoin spot ETFs witnessed their second-highest net inflows for the year earlier this week.

Notably, the cumulative net inflow in Bitcoin spot ETFs crossed the $15 billion mark and currently stands at $15.56 billion at the time of writing, according to data analytics platform Sosovalue.

In a note shared with Decrypt, Standard Chartered analyst Geoffrey Kendrick have pointed out that institutional investors are flocking to buy Bitcoin spot ETFs.

“The recent recovery in inflows started in mid-May which was right around the time 13F filings started to appear for end Q1 holdings of the BTC ETFs. They showed very strong and broad holdings data. For example, Blackrock’s IBIT had 414 reported holders including large banks, hedge funds, state pension funds etc.," he wrote in the note.

Case in point: Medical technology firm Semler Scientific announced that it has purchased Bitcoin worth $17 million and that the firm plans on spending another $150 million on Bitcoin in the future.

Standard Chartered analysts are expecting the price of Bitcoin to cross its all-time high by the end of the week if the U.S. payroll data is favorable. Further, they forecast that the price of Bitcoin will reach $80,000 by the end of the month, barring any negative surprise in the payroll data.

The British banking heavyweight has reiterated that the price of Bitcoin will be positively affected if Donald Trump wins the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

The note suggests that the price of Bitcoin could reach $100,000 as the elections begin and can surpass the $150,000 mark by the end of the year if Trump wins his second term as U.S. president. If Bitcoin does manage to surpass the $150,000 mark, it will enter the elite club of financial assets that have a market capitalization of more than $3 trillion. And if it manages to do that, it will be bigger than the entire $2.8 global market cap as it stands today.

Last week, Donald Trump was convicted on all 34 charges in his hush money trial. He has become the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony. But despite the guilty verdict, Trump’s campaign received donations amounting to $52.8 million within 24 hours, according to a report.

Users on Polymarket, a decentralized prediction market platform, are speculating that Trump will likely win the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Trump’s odds are at 56%, while the incumbent U.S. president Joe Biden’s odds stood at 35% at the time of writing.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.

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