Bitcoin rose to $38,800 for the first time since May 2022 during European morning hours on Friday, continuing its strong multi-month uptrend buoyed by expectations of institutional demand.
The asset added nearly 3% in the past 24 hours, mirroring an uptick in global stock markets. Futures of U.S. indices S&P500 and Dow Jones jumped 0.17% higher in premarket trading, while European index Stoxx 600 added 0.52% since Friday’s open.
The price jumps come as euphoria around a planned spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the U.S. heats up and on-chain behavior suggests a significant amount of the asset has been moved to cold storage – indicating demand and a lack of imminent sell pressure.
Strength in bitcoin also helped a bump in overall capitalization, which crossed the $1.5 trillion mark on Thursday and has added $400 billion since the start of October.
Strong narratives in artificial intelligence, layer 1 blockchains, and gaming have aided growth in large-cap tokens – with prices of Solana’s SOL and Avalanche’s AVAX more than doubling in the past two months.
Meanwhile, some market watchers said bitcoin could see muted growth as December progresses.
“In terms of seasonality, December is considered a relatively neutral month of the year, adding half the time over the past 12 years,” Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro senior market analyst, said in an email. “The average gain is 30.8%, while the average decline is 12.8%.”
