It's been a while, hasn't it? Let me put that time into perspective for you. The last time I wrote here, Bitcoin was still struggling with bear traders around the $38k mark and Solana was under $100. Fast forward a little over a month and Bitcoin is about to break its ATH. February was truly a crazy and exciting month for crypto enthusiasts: positively for hodlers, negatively for Nigerians (you probably know why).

Let's zero in on Bitcoin and the 2 biggest reasons it suddenly woke up and chose to push upward with speed.

1, INSTITUTIONAL INTEREST

BTC spot ETFs are the door for institutional money to invest in Bitcoin. And now, the institutions are rushing in through the door.Bitcoin ETFs have almost reached 50% of the size of the Gold ETFs. Even yesterday, there was a net flow of $520 million into BTC ETFs. Fidelity increased its allocation from 1% → 3%. And so on.

James Seyffart, a leading financial analyst, tweeted "The new record for #Bitcoin ETF trading volume is officially $7.69 billion. The previous record was $4.66 billion from launch day. "

In the visual above, you can see the traded volume of all the US Bitcoin Spot ETFs and their performance since its inception. From the visual, it's clear that large pockets have been more invested recently. As of the time of writing, that previous record was shattered again as the trading volume crossed the $10 billion mark.

As prices continue to climb higher and many search for a reason why, the clearest answer is a simple supply and demand imbalance: BTC ETFs (and just regular spot buyers) are simply demanding more Bitcoins than miners are capable of producing (and sellers are willing to part ways with). The picture below is from February 27.

With the halving soon to come, it's a no-brainer as to why nobody wants to sell their bitcoin because there is a consensus that the all-time high must be broken.

If you have money, buy bitcoin.

2. LEVERAGE

For those leverage trading, this market is either a landmine or a goldmine, with heightened volatility and extremely extended funding rates presenting plenty of opportunity for profitable trades, while also sharply increasing the number of liquidations on both the long and short sides in recent days.

For the uninformed, funding rates refer to the costs associated with holding a futures contract position for a longer duration than the standard expiration date. The perpetual futures contracts which have been held for long periods of time by these speculators require more liquidity to maintain their open positions. This leads to incurred trading fees. The more liquidity placed in futures trades, the more leverage people use.

This strategy leads to over leveraging and it is a double-edged sword. If done right, the trade can literally change the life of an individual. However, the drawback has a consequence of equal weight, with a total wipeout of the account possible if market manipulations like short squeezes should occur.

There are other factors involved in Bitcoin's crazy rally, but these 2 are the most important because of the volume of liquidity involved. In this situation, it's foolish to rely on technical analysis because the market is not moving according to fair value gaps and liquidity voids. Trade carefully and do not FOMO, that's the crypto equivalent of gambling away your funds on a Sporty Bet ticket you saw on X.

Stay SAFU and I'll see you next time.