Bitcoin went mainstream in 2024. Are ether, solana and other risky tokens next?
Bitcoin went mainstream in 2024 thanks to the roaring launch of the first U.S. exchange-traded funds to hold the cryptocurrency and Donald Trump’s surprise embrace of digital assets. Some investors are skeptical that smaller tokens like solana and XRP will follow the same path.
Bitcoin prices have more than doubled this year and soared 40% since Election Day on hopes that a second Trump administration will usher in a golden age for digital currencies.
Everyday investors have piled into a class of 12 new funds known as spot bitcoin ETFs that allow them to purchase bitcoin in their brokerage accounts as easily as stocks. The funds have attracted $36 billion of new money since their launch, while assets have swelled to about $116 billion, thanks to the monster rally in prices.
Investors and analysts say the success of the ETFs has played a crucial role in fueling bitcoin’s run. Collectively, the 12 funds own more than one million bitcoins, making them the largest collective holder of the cryptocurrency in the world, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas.
“Our estimates were blown away, and we were on the more optimistic side," said Balchunas.
The resurgence of bitcoin and the wild success of the ETFs appeared improbable just two years ago, when the implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange drove the cryptocurrency’s price below $16,000. Bitcoin skeptics argue its short history has been dotted with furious rallies and spectacular crashes, and it has no place in the portfolios of mainstream investors.
BlackRock and Fidelity have emerged as early winners of the bitcoin ETF race. With $56 billion in assets, the iShares Bitcoin Trust is the world’s largest bitcoin fund and the most
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