Bitcoin’s price set a new all-time high above $106,000 earlier today (around 02:00 UTC+1), currently sitting at around $105,000. Its previous high was around $104,000, which was set on Dec 5 when Bitcoin first broke above the $100,000 level.
Digital asset investment products saw inflows last week totalling $3.2bn, the 10th consecutive week, with inflows this year so far now totalling $44.5bn —quadruple any other year, Head of Research James Butterfill said.
Bitcoin investment products saw inflows totalling $2bn, while Ethereum saw its 7th consecutive week of inflows, with $1bn recorded this week.
Based on the seven-day simple moving average (SMA), Bitcoin's network hashrate has broken the 800 EH/s mark, reaching 805 EH/s on Dec 14, a new historical high. It's now at around 799 EH/s. This makes block intervals shorter than the expected ten minutes, clocking in at an average of 9 minutes 34 seconds. This efficiency has prompted a difficulty adjustment, projected to increase by 4.4%, making it even more challenging for miners to secure new blocks.
The weighted average cash cost to produce one Bitcoin among listed miners increased by 13% from $49,500 in Q2 to $55,950 in Q3. Mining remaining profitable at current prices of $100k, according to CoinShares.
So far in December, Bitcoin miners sold over 130,000 Bitcoins. More generally, since January 2024, the amount of Bitcoin held in miner wallets has been decreasing.
MicroStrategy will be joining the Nasdaq 100 index, effective Dec 23.
The former Prime Minister of Thailand gave a special lecture warning the Thai trade sector of the return of Trump, urging them to set up a sandbox to try accepting “Bitcoin” payments in Phuket and to study issuing stablecoins instead of printing banknotes.
Stablecoins are drawing more VC interest, with VCs targeting several categories of stablecoin startups that focus on infrastructure, through projects offering compliance tools, fraud prevention and wealth management services, as well as vertical integration and the bridging between traditional finance and crypto.