This Week on Crypto Twitter: Bitcoin Surge Triggers Bull Market Delirium - Decrypt
03/03/2024 12:01
As BTC soared closer to its all-time high for the first time in years, many crypto users noted telltale signs that bull market madness had returned to the industry.
A crypto market already ascendant was whipped into a full frenzy this week, bringing many old bull market habits and signals back to Crypto Twitter.
The madness was already in full swing in the first half of the week, when Bitcoin began accelerating at an astonishing pace not seen in years. Within days, the world’s top cryptocurrency surged from just north of $50,000 to almost $64,000 (before settling back down a bit to $61,885 at writing).
At certain points on Monday and Wednesday, the token repeatedly shot up multiple percentage points within minutes, astonishing onlookers.
By the time BTC approached $64,000 on Wednesday—just $5,000 short of the token’s all-time high from November 2021—Crypto Twitter was a maelstrom of giddy anticipation. With weeks still remaining until the hotly anticipated Bitcoin halving in April—an event many expect will send BTC even higher—the potential for the token’s near-term potential seemed simply mind-boggling.
WHAT IS HAPPENING! #Bitcoin is $63,500 PRE HALVING!
PREEEE HALVINGGGGGGGGG.
This bull run is going to CHANGE SO MANY LIVES FOREVER ❤️
— Aj (@Ajwritescrypto) February 28, 2024
Numerous die-hard crypto bear market veterans observed that within a matter of days, the industry was already starting to look different. Some observed that their non-crypto friends had started taking notice of the blooming market. Others noticed more signals that the mainstream was beginning to reevaluate crypto, a telltale indication of impending bull market insanity.
Signs we’re inching towards chaos:
- Coinbase climbing the App Store ranks
- VCs investing without looking at the deck (wild 😭)
- Crypto ads on Instagram.
- Non-crypto friends asking for advice.
- 2021 influncooors coming back.
- Google trending key words (BTC,crypto)
— Abhz 💭 (@Aabbhhz) March 2, 2024
One such signal of the phenomenal mainstream interest shifting to Bitcoin came via the revelation that now, over 4% of all Bitcoin in circulation has been swallowed up by spot Bitcoin ETFs—and that figure is only getting bigger.
There are 1.82 Million BTC on ALL the exchanges.
Every day, the ETFs are buying 10K, or about 0.5%.In one week that's 4% of THE ENTIRE TRADING SUPPLY OF BITCOIN.
So now multiply by 12 weeks. Half the supply: "Poof"
Get the Picture? pic.twitter.com/o73fIO5Jxe
— Fred Krueger (@dotkrueger) February 29, 2024
Yet another sign that bull market fever has solidly set in came in the middle of the week, when Coinbase crashed for many users during the height of Bitcoin’s frenzied ascent. Due to an internal glitch, scores of Coinbase customers reported seeing their account balances appear to be zero before the problem was resolved.
I was just laid off from @coinbase
I was the frontend engineer who decided to build the portfolio page so when connections to servers are lost, it shows “zero balance” and your graph going straight down instead of a simple error message saying “unable to load balances”
— ethereumdegen.eth 🕶️ᵍᵐ (@ethereumdegen) February 28, 2024
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong later announced that the crash was due to a spike in traffic for the app, caused by BTC’s spring exceeding 10 times normal levels.
But instead of expressing frustration, many crypto users embraced the chaos from the incident—as yet another sign from above that the beautiful mess of the bull market was back.
It ain't a bull market unless Coinbase goes down 😅... having flashbacks to 2017
— Tony Edward (Thinking Crypto Podcast) (@ThinkingCrypto1) February 28, 2024
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.