Bitcoin's new $71K record high: What's fueling the gains?

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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) has hit a new all-time high of $71,000, marking a significant milestone for the cryptocurrency. The surge has been fueled by a remarkable increase in demand, driven by heightened investor interest and substantial inflows into spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Yahoo Finance senior reporter David Hollerith breaks down the details.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Angel Smith

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Well, Bitcoin's record rally showing no signs of slowing. Now topping $71,000 for the first time ever as more investors pour money into the digital asset through spot Bitcoin ETFs. Yahoo Finance's David Hollerith joining us now with more. And David, we talked about this momentum trade. The fact that it almost seems like nothing is going to be slowing down Bitcoin at least anytime soon.

DAVID HOLLERITH: Yeah, that's right. And there are a lot of narratives out there about sort of the supply and demand dynamics, what's going on with Bitcoin. But as you pointed out at the top of it is it's really still about the ETFs and just what kind of machine this is when asset managers start buying. Uhm, so analysts sort of track how much buying happens. And you look at investment flows, there's been about $10 million of investment flows into these, uh, spot Bitcoin ETFs since they launched in January. And that translates to about 4,000 coins on average per day. And Bitcoin creates about 900, uh, coins per day. So what's happening right now is just sheer, uh, supply and demand dynamics, as, you know, other guests have pointed out too. It's just that, uhm, you know, we're seeing huge amounts of demand right now. And it looks like there's going to conti-- be continued sort of demand stories coming out through the rest of the year, so.

BRAD SMITH: And when we think about that demand story, I mean, some of it's going to be a larger international type of thread that we're going to have to draw here, too. And we think about what just took place with the UK. And it looks like they're clearing the way for ETPs, Bitcoin ETPs, to come there. So how much of this is a global story as well of utilization, but also as an investment asset?

DAVID HOLLERITH: Yeah. You know the ac-- the actual use cases for Bitcoin, which we're not actually talking about that much these days, are really around emerging markets and how it's going to be used. And that's still a pretty small amount of how much the asset is actually being used. So, you know, we're still waiting to see that. But really, as an emerging international, uh, currency is kind of the main story that Bitcoin bulls will talk about. So that's-- you got to see more of that to happen for it to really, you know, continue to have steam.

BRAD SMITH: Dave, good to see you live in living color here in studio in New York. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

DAVID HOLLERITH: Pleasure.

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