Bitcoin holders and traders will be feeling some cheer as the (in)famous cryptocurrency hit an 18-month high today. Whatever is happening in the background, it looks like more than a blip on the radar, as BTC valuations confidently pierced the $35,000 barrier. In fact, the price of Bitcoin reached an 18-month high today. This newfound vigor in BTC shouldn't cause PC GPU buyers any worries, though.
Above, you can see that Bitcoin valuations have surged in the last week, yet today looks quite turbulent (more on today’s ups and downs later). According to Sky News, Bitcoin enjoyed gains of about 10% on Monday, feeling the swell from the broader crypto market. The latest boost to its valuation though, is said to come from a US financial regulator decision.
Speculation is said to have been mounting that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may finally give the go-ahead for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on the BTC market price. Grayscale Investments has been mentioned as one particular financial pioneer of these ETFs, driving valuations in recent weeks, but such rumors have been simmering since August.
Important benefits of ETFs based on BTC, if approved, would be the potential large audience and increased liquidity. In effect, these instruments allow investors to gain exposure to the BTC market without owning crypto. ETFs containing some BTC could benefit from the potential crypto-revival upside, with limited downside, and would be expected to stoke new interest. Such a financial instrument may even attract large institutional investors.
Looking closer at the chart for the last 24 hours, we can see that there was a precipitous drop at around 3 p.m. UTC. This seems to be explained by one of the major Bitcoin ETF pioneers perhaps not going forward with such plans. CoinDesk reports that BTC's $35,000 valuation achievement was severely dented by the ticker for BlackRock's (BLK) spot Bitcoin ETF being removed from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation's (DTCC) website in the US.
We note that the spike down seems to have been brief, but since when does reality affect the investments of BTC speculators?
GPU BTC Mining Remains Dead
PC enthusiasts shouldn't worry about anything other than the most astronomical rises in BTC valuations affecting the GPU market. For example, we have calculated that, at today's price, it still isn't viable to use the best graphics cards like the GeForce RTX 4080 or GeForce RTX 4090 for profitable cryptomining. Putting some rough numbers to our statement, either of these top gaming GPUs could be run to make $0.20 a day, according to NiceHash data. Breakeven would thus take 5,000 days for a GeForce RTX 4080, or 8,000 days for a GeForce RTX 4090.
