Of course, back in January, crypto markets were bolstered by the US SEC’s regulatory approval of several spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) – enabling traders access to cryptocurrency via regular stock exchanges.

This marked a significant shift in the SEC’s approach to digital assets trading, historically warning traders of the myriad risks associated with buying and selling crypto. 

Its endorsement, though, has seen confidence in crypto markets skyrocket and helped propel today’s bull market. BlackRock and Fidelity are among the first spot Bitcoin ETF providers to offer trading on stock exchanges.

And, the brokerage Bernstein says US spot ETFs added 60,000 Bitcoin within the first month – double the miner production rate within the same period. 

Bitpanda Co-founder and CEO, Eric Demuth, told us the SEC’s action would “fundamentally change the industry” just over a month ago, and it appears to be doing so in rapid time. 

“Many institutional investors were unable to operate in the crypto sector within their regulatory framework, as they had to invest in traditional financial products,” Demuth added.

But, now that there are regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs, Demuth feels this will “further encourage the mass adoption of crypto assets by institutional investors in the US”. 

Indeed, crypto infrastructure providers such as Coinbase – which is the custodian for eight in 10 crypto traders today – have recently scaled up their efforts to make crypto more accessible and trading easier to understand for first-time users.

In the case of Coinbase, it partnered with Ledger to integrate Coinbase Pay functionalities into the Ledger Live app, allowing users to transfer existing crypto holdings and conduct transactions directly, via mobile or desktop.

Bitcoin’s rise has also been helped by trading volumes remaining robust, with total spot trading volumes on centralised exchanges up 4.4% to US$1.4tn in January 2024.