The year 2024 will be one for the history books for the digital currency industry and, in particular, for Bitcoin. After a start to the year courtesy of spot exchange traded funds (ETFs), it didn't take long for the leading digital currency to ride on the back of new institutional capital to a new all-time high.
This has largely been the story for Bitcoin in the past 12 months, as the market leader has received the most attention from institutional players and large corporations. Blockchain analysis company CryptoQuant recently published a report to highlight the influence of large investors on the world's largest digital currency this year.
Is 2024 the best year for institutional adoption of Bitcoin?
In its latest weekly report, blockchain intelligence platform CryptoQuant discussed how 2024 was a landmark year for Bitcoin adoption – driven by the launch of spot ETFs in January. By the end of the year, the BTC currency already holds more coins (over 1.1 million) than any entity (including the anonymous creator of Bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto).
The ETFs have provided a way for institutional and retail investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without owning it directly. Meanwhile, the spot cryptocurrency has helped drive a steady influx of capital into the major digital currency over the past 11 months.
According to data from CryptoQuant, BTC has seen a significant increase in the realized capitalization, rising from $430 billion to a peak of $730 billion so far in 2024. The holder is MicroStrategy largest corporation, one of the main contributors to this growth rate. of Bitcoin so far this year.
Source: CryptoQuant
Data from CryptoQuant indicates that MicroStrategy made an effort to strengthen its position as the largest physical BTC holder by regularly filling its bags throughout the year. The business intelligence company started the year with a holding of 189,000 BTC, which has now expanded by 112% to 402,000 coins.
Additionally, on-chain data shows that large Bitcoin investors increased their holdings with a net base of 275,000 so far in 2024 reaching a record high of 16.4 million BTC. These numbers highlight the growing institutional demand and growing influence of crypto and Bitcoin in traditional finance, especially in the past year.
Bitcoin price overview
Due to the increase in institutional adoption, the price of BTC has seen significant growth in 2024, recently reaching a six-figure valuation. As of this writing, the major cryptocurrency is valued at just over $100,000, showing an increase of nearly 5% in the past 24 hours. According to data from CoinGecko, BTC remains the largest cryptocurrency in the digital asset segment, with a market cap of approximately $1.99 trillion.
The price of BTC on the daily timeframe | Source: BTCUSDT on the TradingView
Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView
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