Bitcoin is back in the news as it recently exceeded the prior all-time high of $68,992 set in November of 2021. Indeed, it was less than a year ago in my April 2023 newsletter, I noted "bear markets don't scare you out, they wear you out." Bitcoin was trading below $30,000 at that point and, once again, nobody seemed to care about it.
But, with bitcoin exceeding the previous all-time highs, the cryptocurrency is now top of mind and a conversation piece to many client meetings and conversations with family and friends again. What's driven the latest surge? While bitcoin had already risen in price from its late 2022 lows, the cryptocurrency received an added boost earlier this year when the Securities and Exchange Commission approved several "spot" bitcoin ETFs. These spot ETFs give investors the chance to buy bitcoin in many brokerage accounts at theoretically the same price they could purchase actual bitcoin on a cryptocurrency exchange. And, after a brief drop for a few days following approval, these ETFs have now been taking in billions of dollars of investor capital every week.
For my part, I continue to say the same thing I've been saying for years - that bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies are a multi-decade story. Whether they become commonly used by the public is a question that likely won't be answered for a long, long tme. In short, we just don't know right now. Still, recall my November 2020 newsletter where I noted that, "...bitcoin is a tremendously tremendously, under owned and undervalued asset. Many still mock it, and many more don't even know how to acquire it" (the "acquisition" part has now been made (sort of) easier by the SEC). I still believe the same holds true today. Again, just like I did four years ago, I note every investor must evaluate bitcoin given their own unique risk tolerance and time horizon and invest (or not) accordingly.