Bitcoin is starting the week above $65,000 and just 6% away from the all-time high price of $69,044 it set on November 10, 2021.
At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is $65,037.24. That means the price has climbed 6% since yesterday and posted a remarkable 27% gain in just the past week, according to CoinGecko data. And if it can replicate that 6% price hike, it’ll pull level with its all-time high.
The world’s oldest and largest cryptocurrency has seen $27 billion worth of trading volume today—which is already more than it saw all of yesterday. Yet another sign that weekend Bitcoin trading has really fallen out of favor with investors.
But depending on which currency you use to measure Bitcoin’s price, it’s already exceeded its all-time high.
The same day that BTC hit its peak price as expressed in U. S. dollars in 2021, it was trading for €59,716.82 in Europe. Now at the time of writing, 1 BTC is trading for €59,901.25. Bitcoin has already set new peak prices in other global currencies over the weekend, including the Chinese Yuan, Japanese Yen, the U.K. Pound Sterling and India’s Rupee.
So why the ATH in some currencies but not the dollar? Back in November 2021, 1 Euro, for example, was worth about $1.16. But now the Euro’s exchange rate has slipped and as of this writing, it’s worth $1.08. That’s to say, the U. S. dollar has gained buying power relative to most other currencies since 2021.
As if that’s not already a lot of different all-time highs to track, it can also depend on the exchange.
Blockchain analytics firm Kaiko found the USD Bitcoin all-time high varies a bit, with the highest being recorded on OkCoin. But it’s safe to say that if Bitcoin gets above $69,000, then the market will likely see it set a new historical high.
And no big surprise that with only 25 days to go, open interest in Bitcoin options for March 29 expiry keeps climbing at a steady clip. In the past day alone, Bitcoin open interest has increased by 10% according to CoinGlass and has now surpassed $30 billion.
Bitcoin open interest refers to the value of all open futures contracts that have not yet been settled. As the Bitcoin network approaches its fourth ever halving event—which has historically created a lot of upward momentum for the BTC price—there’s a historically high amount of value sitting in options contracts that expire on March 29. Traders use options contracts to bet on how the price will move in the future.
At the time of writing, there’s $775 million worth of open long contracts on popular derivatives exchange Deribit betting that Bitcoin will hit $70,000 before the end of the month.