Bitcoin exceeded $42,000 - what's happening?

By 2022, Bitcoin had fully recovered from the TerraUSD crash.

Project leaders in the crypto space have forecasted that the price of Bitcoin (BTC) will reach $100,000.

Peter Schiff foresaw a rapid downfall of Bitcoin.

For the past ten weeks, there has been an increase in investments in crypto funds.

Investments made by El Salvador in Bitcoin proved to be lucrative.

On Monday, Bitcoin surged to a new all-time high of $42,000, representing an increase of more than $2,000 (or 5%) from its previous level. This marks the first time that BTC has traded above $40,000 since April 2022, prior to the Terra ecosystem's collapse which caused a major crypto market crash.

The potential approval of a Bitcoin ETF in the United States has been met with positive sentiment in the market, leading to an increase in the rate of the leading cryptocurrency. Bloomberg analyst James Seyffarth has predicted that the approval of a Bitcoin ETF is likely to take place between January 5 and January 10.

Investor optimism regarding the US economy's recovery, as well as upcoming changes in the regulation of the crypto industry, are contributing to the growth of Bitcoin (BTC). This is further bolstered by the increasing hashrate of the network.

In an interview with CNBC, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier, Lightspark head David Marcus, and CoinDCX exchange top manager Vijay Aiyar all predicted that the Bitcoin rate will reach $100,000 by 2024.

Industry veteran and Blockstream CEO Adam Back believes that Bitcoin will surpass the $100,000 mark before the upcoming halving in April 2024. His opinion is in line with that of BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, who has predicted that the digital gold's price could reach anywhere between $750,000 and $1 million by 2026.

CoinShares reported that investments in crypto funds rose by $176 million last week, marking the sixth consecutive week of significant inflows and the tenth overall. Of this, investments in Bitcoin increased by $133 million, Ethereum by $31 million, and Solana by $4.3 million. Additionally, investments in funds that allow for shorting Bitcoin rose by $4 million.

CoinShares reported that investments in crypto funds had risen to $1.76 billion, or 4% of assets under management (AuM), over a period of 10 weeks - the highest since October 2021 when the US launched its futures ETF. Trading volumes on ETPs were also reported to be high at $2.6 billion.

President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has announced that the country's investment in Bitcoin has been highly successful, yielding unrealized profits of over $3 million. Bukele has stated that El Salvador has no intention of selling its digital assets and will instead pursue a long-term strategy. The nation currently holds 3,144 BTC, worth approximately $130 million.

Peter Schiff, a major critic of the world's first cryptocurrency, has predicted that the speculative frenzy surrounding the Bitcoin ETF will soon come to an end, and that the fall of Bitcoin will be more dramatic than its rally of recent months.