Bitcoin closes in on all time high

During the European morning hours on Wednesday, Bitcoin rallied above the $59,000 mark, registering a 5% increase over the past 24 hours and achieving a market capitalization of $1.2 trillion.

The surge in price coincided with spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recording over $3 billion in cumulative trading volumes on Tuesday, which contributed to increased demand. Additionally, some traders highlighted the upcoming bitcoin halving event, expected in April, as a new narrative that spurred a pre-halving rally.

Futures bets anticipating lower bitcoin prices faced approximately $25 million in liquidations since the Asian morning hours, potentially contributing to the price surge.

In other cryptocurrency news, major tokens such as ether (ETH), Solana’s SOL, and XRP saw gains of up to 3% since the Asian morning hours.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the fear and greed index, a sentiment metric gauging the rate of change in asset movement against inherent fundamentals, reached 82, indicating extreme greed and hitting its highest level in over a year.

The index is graded on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 represents extreme fear and 100 represents extreme greed. A greedy environment is interpreted as a sign of euphoria, indicating that "the market is due for a correction," according to the index's developers. Traders, however, remain undeterred, with some anticipating that Bitcoin will surpass its previous highs of $69,000 in March.

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