The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has reached a high of $42,715.93 in the last week.

Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s oldest and most valuable cryptocurrency, surged to a 26-month high over the weekend, surpassing $48,000. BRRR, BTCW, HODL, and ARKB were among the nine new ETFs that drew 6,009.49 BTCs from investors, and it is widely believed that if the rise continues, BTC will shortly surpass $50,000 for the first time since December 2021. At the time of writing, the CoinMarketCap Fear & Greed Index was comfortably ranked in the ‘Greed’ category, with a score of 68 out of 100. It remains to be seen whether crypto’s oldest coin can hold its own in the coming days.

Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s oldest and most valuable cryptocurrency, surged to a 26-month high over the weekend, surpassing $48,000. BRRR, BTCW, HODL, and ARKB were among the nine new ETFs that drew 6,009.49 BTCs from investors, and it is widely believed that if the rise continues, BTC will shortly surpass $50,000 for the first time since December 2021. At the time of writing, the CoinMarketCap Fear & Greed Index was comfortably ranked in the ‘Greed’ category, with a score of 68 out of 100. It remains to be seen whether crypto’s oldest coin can hold its own in the coming days.

Crypto Prices Over The Past Week

Last Monday (February 5), the total cryptocurrency market capitalization was $1.63 trillion. The price of Bitcoin was over $42,650, while the price of Ethereum was around $2,290.

A week later, the total market capitalization soared to $1.80 trillion.

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DeFi’s total volume is $4.52 billion, or 9.99 percent of the overall market 24-hour volume. Stablecoins have an overall volume of $40.40 billion, accounting for 89.33% of total 24-hour market volume. According to CoinMarketCap, the overall market fear and greed index was ‘Greed’ (68 points out of 100).

At the time of writing, BTC’s dominance was 52.48 percent.

Bitcoin has hit a high of $48,707.34 (February 12) and a low of $42,385.40 (February 6).

Ethereum, on the other hand, experienced a high of $2,537.68 (February 11) and a low of $2,495.47 (February 12).

Crypto Events To Note

Nine freshly created spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have seen significant asset buildup since their inception on February 9, 2024. According to the most recent data, the ETFs BRRR, BTCW, HODL, ARKB, EZBC, IBIT, FBTC, BITB, and BTCO have collected a total of 6,009.49 BTC, which is worth around $288 million. This raises the total holdings of these ETFs to 208,878.1 BTC, worth more over $10 billion.

Concurrently, Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which has moved to a publicly traded exchange-traded vehicle, has unloaded about 2,252.2 BTC worth approximately $108 million. These trends show investors’ growing interest in bitcoin investment vehicles, which provide exposure to the digital asset market through a variety of financial products.

Meanwhile, Coinbase, a well-known cryptocurrency exchange based in the United States, highlighted the potential cost reductions for Americans by adopting bitcoin payments, contrasting them with standard credit card costs. According to Coinbase’s recent State of Crypto report, adopting crypto technology could have saved consumers a staggering $74 million in fees in 2022 alone, which the exchange attributes to the high transaction costs and delays inherent in traditional financial systems.

According to the survey, if people had used cryptocurrencies instead of credit cards, each American household might have saved an average of $600 over the course of a year. However, the impact of high fees is not restricted to consumers; merchants have also experienced a major cost, paying nearly $126 billion in fees to handle credit card transactions. In contrast, the costs involved with processing cryptocurrency payments may be negligible, potentially resulting in significant savings for enterprises.

Finally, in a recent legal struggle between the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and bitcoin firm Block Earner, the ASIC won. The Australian Federal Court decided in favor of ASIC, ruling that Block Earner’s product offering violated parts of the Corporations Act 2001.

Judge Ian Jackman, who presided over the case, concluded that Block Earner violated sections 601ED and 911A of the Act by offering the “Earner” product without acquiring the required Australian financial services license. This decision represents a significant victory for ASIC in its ongoing attempts to regulate the cryptocurrency sector and ensure compliance with financial legislation.