Crypto Market Forecast: 21st October – Bitcoin hits all time high

• It is official, Bitcoin (BTC) has a new all-time high. On October 20th, BTC drove past its previous ATH mark of ~US$64,900 set in April 2021 and pushed as high as ~US$67,000 on most major exchanges. The asset is up ~6.5% this week.

• BTC’s price momentum this week coincides with the launch of the first-ever Bitcoin Exchange Tradeable Fund (ETF) in the United States. The event has been embraced as a milestone regulatory success, with a green light for paper BTC after years of rejected and resubmitted applications.

• The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF has a ticker BITO and tracks the CME bitcoin futures price. Demand for BITO has so far been record-breaking. It is easily the largest day-1 ETF launch ever by natural volume.

• BITO assets under management (AUM) hit US$1.1 billion after its 2nd day of trading, making it the fastest ETF to get to $1b, breaking an 18-year-old record set previously by gold by one day. Demand to gain exposure to BTC is very evident in the United States.

• Valkyrie Investments will launch its bitcoin futures ETF on Friday having also gained approval for trading from the SEC. BTC’s ETF-driven price momentum appears set to continue.

Altcoin price watch

• The altcoin market has joined Bitcoin in enjoying healthy gains so far this week with rising tides lifting all boats. Large-cap alts Ethereum (ETH), and Binance-coin (BNB), are up ~8.9%, and ~6.2% so far this week.

• While Bitcoin has captured most of the mainstream headlines because of its legacy finance crossover, open interest on ETH futures on the CME crossed US$1 billion today thanks to the price rise and new positions opened by institutions.

• Ethereum alternative Terra (LUNA) has also had an excellent week so far and is hovering at close to the all-time highs it touched earlier in October. The asset is up ~15.5% in the last month.

• The driver of the gains is the network’s upcoming launch of Inter-Blockchain Communication. This will allow Terra to communicate with other chains and Terra assets like LUNA and UST transferred to Ethereum, Solana, and the Binance Smart Chain through one interface.

What we’re looking at:

Martin Shrekeli’s ultra-rare Wu-Tang Album is owned by a crypto investment collective

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that PleasrDAO, an investment group known for making purchases of high-end NFT art pieces, has bought the sole physical copy of the Wu-Tang Clan album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” in July of this year.

The legendary rap group’s seventh studio album had previously been in the possession of disgraced pharmaceutical executive Martin Shrekeli. Shrekeli was sent to prison in 2018 for fraud. The album was seized by the government and remained in its vault until this summer when an anonymous buyer bought the piece for an undisclosed amount.

For what PleasrDAO member Jamis Johnson describes as the “O.G NFT”, the collective paid US$4 million. The purchase makes sense for PleasrDAO. NFTs are designed to verify authenticity and help art retain value by creating verifiable scarcity. This is exactly what Wu-Tang was hoping to achieve when they made just one copy of “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin”.

PlearDAO worked with an agency called ‘6’ to broker the closed-door deal with the U.S. government. This is a sign of the reach, relevance, and scale of the NFT ecosystem. Players in the space are making big money deals with literally the biggest economic agents in the world. The collective has said that it ultimately hopes to make the album more widely available to the public if it can get approval from Wu-Tang leader RZA and producer Cilvaringz.