Bitcoin (BTC) once again crossed $48,000 amid a sustained week-long uptrend. Solana (SOL), meanwhile, is still in the spotlight after it recorded its first network outage of the year. And MicroStrategy revealed it purchased an additional 850 BTC.
Solana records 5-hour outage
Solana experienced a network disruption on February 6 around 10:00 UTC, marking its first outage in over a year. This incident altered investor sentiment during a period of overall market uptrend. SOL faced a 4% decline as expected, but market observers praised its resilience under the circumstances.
Network engineers and validators from across the ecosystem swiftly mobilized to tackle the performance issue, as the blockchain halted transaction processing. After five hours, the network successfully recovered from the downtime, demonstrating its ability to rebound effectively.
Bitcoin breaks above $48,000
Despite the Solana network outage, SOL experienced significant gains this week, which can be attributed to Bitcoin’s resurgence. Bitcoin witnessed impressive surges throughout the week, beginning with a favorable outlook and bullish updates. Notably, Bitcoin recorded a cumulative monthly trade volume of $1.21 trillion for January 2024, its highest monthly volume since September 2022.
With increasing demand, Bitcoin, which started the week at the $42,000 level, surpassed several psychological resistance points in a rally that resulted in six consecutive weeks of intraday gains. Eventually, BTC reclaimed the $47,000 price on Feb. 9, triggering a bullish market reaction that led to substantial price surges for other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin further broke through the $48,000 mark and has maintained a position above this price level, currently hovering at $48,067.30.
MicroStrategy adds to its BTC stash
During the uptrend in Bitcoin’s price, Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy announced on Feb. 6 that they had once again increased their BTC holdings. According to the disclosure, MicroStrategy purchased an additional 850 BTC tokens last month at a total cost of $37.2 million.
Interestingly, with Bitcoin’s current price, these assets are now valued at over $41 million, resulting in an unrealized profit of $3.8 million for the purchases made in January alone. Following this latest addition, the Tysons, Virginia-based firm now holds 190,000 BTC, which is currently valued at $9.18 billion.
Additionally, Saylor, MicroStrategy’s owner and executive chair, recently sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock, as per a recent SEC filing. Over the past year, he has sold a total of 120,000 shares and has not made any purchases of the company’s stock during this period.
Updates on spot Bitcoin ETF products
The emerging spot Bitcoin ETF market in the U.S. made significant headlines this week, with reports indicating that South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is considering adopting a similar approach to spot Bitcoin ETF products as seen in the United States. FSS chief Lee Bokhyun plans to meet with Gary Gensler, chairperson of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as part of broader efforts to establish proper regulations for the Korean digital asset industry. Additionally, the planned implementation of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act by the Financial Services Commission of South Korea on July 19 is part of these regulatory efforts.
Meanwhile, spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. continued to achieve significant milestones. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) entered the top 5 list of ETPs in the U.S. with the largest capital inflows. Additionally, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas revealed that both BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC witnessed the best initial 30-day performances for any ETF in the United States over the past 30 years.
Despite the impressive inflows these investment products have seen in their first month of launch, Valkyrie’s CIO Steven McClurg expressed skepticism about their longevity. McClurg predicted that some of these products may not withstand the test of time, foreseeing their reduction to eight or seven in the future.
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