Bitcoin Crosses $59,000 In Surprise Pre-Halving Rally

The Bitcoin price has now successfully crossed the $59,000 level after an incredibly bullish month of February. The market leader has also barreled ahead of all expectations during this time as well, continuing to rally at a time when prices are expected to crash ahead of the next halving.

Institutional Investors Drive Bitcoin Price Higher

One of the major drivers behind the Bitcoin performance over the last day has been institutional investors. These investors have continued to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Bitcoin Spot ETFs approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January.

While there have been outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust due to concerns about high fees, the inflows have not slowed. On Tuesday, Bloomberg Analyst James Seyffart revealed that Spot ETF inflows rose once again, to cross $400 million in a single day.

In the same vein, the trading volumes have been on the rise. With demand soaring, volumes crossed $2 billion on Tuesday and it is the second time in a month that it has crossed this figure. This rise in both inflows and trading volumes shows a willingness among institutional investors to take positions in Bitcoin.

Fidelity Investments, one of the issues of the many Spot Bitcoin ETFs available for trading in the market, also recently encouraged investors to put a small portion of their portfolios in Bitcoin. According to the asset manager, a portfolio allocation of 1-3% in Bitcoin is ideal at this point.

Now, while a 1-3% allocation may seem small to the average investor, it is quite large when it comes to institutional investing. These portfolios are often made up of billions of dollars, and even a 1-3% allocation could work out to hundreds of millions of dollars being funneled into Bitcoin.

BTC Dominance Not Budging

While the price of Bitcoin has rallied in the last week, expectations are that Bitcoin will begin to consolidate and then give way to altcoins. However, the BTC dominance over the crypto market remains quite high, suggesting that the time for altcoins may not be here yet.

Presently, the BTC dominance is sitting at 54.1% after seeing a local peak of 54.4%.  This shows that Bitcoin is still leading the entire market by a large margin, and until this dominance subsides, Bitcoin will continue to lead the rally while altcoins lag behind.

For now, the bulls are focusing on maintaining support at $59,000, giving it a bounce point toward $60,000. With the previous all-time high at $69,000, the BTC price needs a less than 20% move from here to reach a new all-time high.