Bitcoin Price Jumps to $64K Again as BTC Open Futures Interest Reaches Record Highs

The Bitcoin (BTC) price rose back above $64,000 for the second time in 2024. The big crypto is up 2.9% over the last 24 hours and 47% over the last 30 days, to hit a multi-year high at $64,231 on March 4.

Accompanying BTC's price action is a 70% jump in trading volume in the last 24 hours to $35.23 billion. Bitcoin's market capitalization has increased to $1.25 trillion, cementing its top position as the most valuable cryptocurrency, according to the CoinMarketCap ranking.

The largest altcoin by market capitalization, Ether,  also remains strong at month opening, climbing 81.8% over the last 24 hours to an intra-day high at $3,528 on March 4. ETH broke through the $3,500 level last week for the first time in almost two years. 

Continued demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs, optimism that a spot Ether product may enter the market in May, and anticipation of Bitcoin's next block reward halving — expected in April — are all backing Bitcoin's uptrend.

BTC open futures interest hit all-time highs

Bitcoin's return to $64,000 comes as the daily open interest (OI) for the pioneer cryptocurrency hit a record high of $28.53 billion during the Asian trading hours on Monday, March 4.

Bitcoin open futures interest on all exchanges. Source: Coinglass

Open interest is a measure of the total value of all outstanding Bitcoin futures contracts across exchanges, indicating increased market activity and trader sentiment.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs continue to perform well, with assets under management (AuM) increasing to $48.83 billion. Blacrock's ETF reached $10 billion last week. The cumulative volume for spot Bitcoin ETFs amounted to $73.91 billion as of March 1, compared to $29.19 billion on Feb. 1, according to data from Yahoo Finance.

The Bitcoin supply halving event is also getting closer and closer and is expected to cut the mining rewards by 50%. This may impact the supply of Bitcoin, and as more demand comes in, particularly from institutional investors, the BTC price is likely to increase.

Can Bitcoin reach $80,000?

At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $63,730, just 7.5% below the all-time high of $69,000 reached on Nov. 10, 2021.

The price action had formed a bullish flag on the daily chart (see below). BTC had escaped from this flag, signaling an upward breakout from the technical formation.

The price is fighting resistance from the recent high at $64,000. A daily candlestick close above this level would see BTC rise, first toward the $65,000 psychological level and later to the all-time high at $69,000.

Higher than that, BTC may rise toward the optimistic target of the prevailing chart pattern at $79,780. This would represent a 25% uptick from the current price.

BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

Apart from the significantly bullish chart formation, the upward-facing moving averages supported the positive outlook. The position of the RSI at 81 in the overbought region suggests that there was still more room for the upside.

On the downside, sellers may decide to take profits on the latest rally to $64,000, triggering a correction. In such a case, Bitcoin may drop to $60,000 and later to $55,000. Such a retrace would result in 14% losses.