The Bitcoin market heat continues to rise, institutional investors are accelerating their entry.

The price of Bitcoin has risen from $20,000 to $34,000 in just half a month, with market sentiment exceptionally high. Currently, the total market capitalization of Bitcoin has jumped to ninth place in the world, second only to Alibaba.

Recently, the price of Bitcoin has experienced a slight pullback, causing fluctuations in the mainstream cryptocurrency market. Among the top 50 digital currencies, 38 have seen declines, with SUSHI experiencing the largest drop at 11.34%. Nevertheless, the overall speculative enthusiasm in the market remains high.

In this round of skyrocketing market, a total of 87,954 Bitcoins were withdrawn from exchanges in the past 30 days. Among them, a well-known exchange withdrew 84,558 coins in 30 days, while two other major exchanges withdrew 5,715 coins and 2,599 coins respectively. On January 3rd, a single day saw a historical high of fund outflow from a certain exchange, with more than 3,500 Bitcoins flowing out, which is speculated to be due to institutional buying.

Currently, 9 funds hold more than 23 billion USD worth of Bitcoin. Holding coins has become a major investment strategy for various institutions. On-chain data analysts indicate that as institutional investors enter the market in large numbers, liquidity is disappearing from exchanges. A significant amount of Bitcoin is being transferred to custody wallets, and the amount held in miner addresses continues to rise. This has led to a decrease in market supply, driving prices up, but it may also bring potential risks of severe volatility.

Despite recent news about certain crypto projects facing regulatory issues, the regulatory environment for digital currencies has welcomed positive developments. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently stated that it allows federal banks to use stablecoins for payments and other activities. This is seen as a further consolidation of Bitcoin's "digital gold" status and is referred to as a "huge victory for the crypto industry and stablecoins."

International mainstream financial media have also paid close attention to Bitcoin breaking through $30,000. The global market strategy head of a large investment bank predicts that Bitcoin's long-term price target will be above $146,000, and it may capture part of the market share of gold in the future. Notably, on January 1st, the Bitcoin to gold ratio reached a historic high, surpassing the peak during the 2017 bull market.

As for whether the price of Bitcoin will rise to the range of 50,000 to 100,000 USD as predicted by some institutions, we still need to wait and see.