By Hannah Lang and Elizabeth Howcroft

WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) -Bitcoin hit the $50,000 degree for the primary time in additional than two years because the world’s largest cryptocurrency was buoyed by expectations of rate of interest cuts later this yr and final month’s regulatory nod for U.S. exchange-traded funds designed to trace its worth.

The cryptocurrency has risen 16.3% thus far this yr, on Monday touching its highest since Dec. 27, 2021. At 12:56 p.m. EST (1756 GMT), bitcoin was up 4.96% on the day at $49,899, having oscillated across the $50,000 degree.

“$50,000 is a major milestone for bitcoin after the launch of spot ETFs final month not solely did not elicit a transfer above this key psychological degree however led to a 20% sell-off,” stated Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of crypto lending platform Nexo.

Crypto shares additionally loved a lift on Monday, with crypto change Coinbase (NASDAQ:) up 4.9% and crypto miners Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:) and Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:) up 10.8% and 11.9%, respectively. Shares of software program agency MicroStrategy — a notable purchaser of bitcoin — have been up 10.2%.

The worth of ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was up 4.12% at $2,607.57.

International inventory indexes additionally edged increased on Monday, as merchants appeared for cues on when the U.S. Federal Reserve would possibly start reducing rates of interest. Analysts and monetary market expectations each level to Could as a possible begin for fee cuts this yr.

ETF EXUBERANCE

The first driver behind bitcoin’s current worth appreciation “may be attributed to the elevated influx into BTC spot ETFs,” stated Matteo Greco, a analysis analyst at fintech funding agency Fineqia Worldwide, in a analysis word.

The U.S. securities regulator on Jan. 10 authorised the primary U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, a watershed for the world’s largest cryptocurrency and the broader crypto business, which had been making an attempt to deliver such a product to marketplace for greater than a decade.

Greco particularly famous that outflows from Grayscale Funding’s Grayscale Belief — which acquired approval from the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC)in January to transform to an ETF — have begun to sluggish.

“Whereas GBTC recorded a cumulative outflow of $415 million final week, representing a major discount from earlier weeks, BTC Spot ETFs noticed a complete web influx of about $1.2 billion throughout the identical interval, marking the best weekly influx since their launch,” he stated.

Analysts at Bernstein have estimated that flows into the brand new ETFs will construct up step by step to cross $10 billion in 2024, whereas Normal Chartered (OTC:) analysts have stated the merchandise might draw $50 billion to $100 billion this yr alone. Different analysts have stated inflows could possibly be $55 billion over 5 years.

The market can also be eyeing seven pending purposes in entrance of the U.S. SEC for ETFs tied to the spot worth of ether. The SEC is because of ship a last determination on a number of of these proposals by Could.

Traders are additionally wanting eagerly to the following bitcoin “halving,” anticipated in April, analysts say. That course of is designed to sluggish the discharge of bitcoin, whose provide is capped at 21 million tokens – of which 19 million have already been created. Bitcoin rallied on the earlier three halvings, the latest of which was in 2020.

“With () fourth bitcoin halving, a primary Fed rate of interest reduce and potential ethereum spot ETF approval, all are important for what’s the smallest, youngest and most retail-dominated asset class,” stated Ben Laidler, international markets strategist at eToro.