For the first time since the beginning of the year, index funds raise Bitcoin near $80,000 economy

Bitcoin approached the $80,000 level for the first time since last January, supported by new inflows into spot ETFs and large purchases from Strategy, which is headed by well-known cryptocurrency supporter Michael Saylor.

According to Bloomberg, the rise of Bitcoin was calm, and was not driven by a widespread demand in the market, but rather by the covering of short selling positions, and the continued accumulation of purchases by “Strategy”, which bought $3.9 billion worth of Bitcoin during the current month, according to company data collected by Bloomberg.

ETFs are a portfolio of assets (stocks, bonds, or commodities) that are traded on the stock exchange just like regular stocks. Instead of buying a single company’s stock, you are buying a share in a huge portfolio that includes hundreds of companies.

While the term “short selling” means that traders bet on the decline in the price of a financial asset, such as Bitcoin, by selling contracts or positions linked to it in the hope of buying them later at a lower price and making a profit from the difference. When the price moves contrary to their expectations and begins to rise, they are forced to close their positions by buying the asset or contracts linked to it, which is known as covering short positions, and this may increase the upward momentum due to additional demand.

Bloomberg added that investors pumped about two billion dollars into Bitcoin traded funds during the past month, with net flows turning into positive territory (the value of money flows is greater than the money leaving those funds) last March, for the first time in 4 months, indicating a gradual improvement in institutional demand for the largest cryptocurrency in the world.

This development coincided with data published by the Coin Telegraph website, which showed that US Bitcoin spot funds recorded inflows of about $2.12 billion during the 9 days until April 24, in the longest series of positive inflows since October 2025, reflecting the return of long-term investors’ appetite despite the currency remaining below its previous peak.

At the time of writing these lines, Bitcoin was trading at $77,728.71, while Ethereum was trading at $2,317.46 (the second largest cryptocurrency), “Tether” at $1, and “XRP” at $1.43, which are the 4 largest cryptocurrencies in terms of market value, according to the ranking of the “Coin Market Cap” website.

The total market value of cryptocurrencies amounted to about $2.6 trillion, a decrease of 0.20% within 24 hours, while the daily trading volume reached $111.4 billion, and Bitcoin accounted for 59.96% of this trading, according to “CoinMarketCap” data.

Return of institutional requests

Bitcoin’s rise reflects a change in the market’s mood after previous selling waves that suppressed any rapid recovery of the currency, as flows into traded funds and “strategic” purchases helped absorb part of the supply and improve dealers’ expectations.

The CryptoBriving website reported the day before yesterday that BlackRock led a series of inflows into Bitcoin funds amounting to $1.9 billion within 7 days, with the currency approaching $80,000, indicating that continued inflows support the upward trend in the market.

Bitcoin ETFs are one of the channels for institutional funds to enter the market, because they provide exposure to the price of the currency without directly holding it, which has made their flows an important indicator of investor appetite since their approval by US regulators.

Strategic’s purchases also reinforced the market trend, as the company relies on raising money from capital markets to increase its holdings of Bitcoin, making its shares an indirect means of betting on the cryptocurrency.

Existing risks

Despite the recent improvement, the cryptocurrency market is still subject to strong fluctuations, as the $80,000 level could turn into a resistance barrier if investors prefer to take profits, especially after Bitcoin’s gains, which amounted to about 14% since the end of March, according to Bloomberg.

The resistance barrier is a term in stock and metal markets that refers to a certain price level that a stock or any other asset finds difficult to cross and rise above.

The market also monitors perpetual contract positions and funding rates, which are indicators that traders use to gauge the trend in the derivatives market. Bloomberg data indicates that building previous selling positions in these contracts later helped support the rise when some traders were forced to cover their positions.

The recovery is not limited to Bitcoin alone, as Bloomberg noted that “Ether” rose by about 10% over the past month to reach $2,300, and smaller currencies also benefited from the improvement in risk appetite in the cryptocurrency market.