Bitcoin rises, trading at $62000 to cap a winning month

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Crypto prices rose on Thursday as bitcoin and ether headed for a winning month.

Bitcoin was last higher by more than 4% at $62,901.93 on the final day of February, according to Coin Metrics. On Wednesday it surged to $64,000 at one point, before a wave of long liquidations triggered a pullback to about $60,000. Ether advanced more than 6% to $3,483.33 Thursday.

The two coins shot higher in February after finishing January flat. Bitcoin is now up 47% for the month. Ether has advanced more than 50%.

Bitcoin YTD

The month was a triumph for bitcoin ETFs, which saw a record $677 million in daily net inflows on Wednesday alone for the third day in a row of inflows above $500 million. Initially, outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF (GBTC), which had a head start on its rivals from when it operated as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, had weighed on the bitcoin price. Those outflows have now diminished.

Investors attribute February's explosive gains to bitcoin's supply and demand dynamics. Sylvia Jablonski, CEO and chief investment officer at Defiance ETFs, pointed specifically to the new ETFs and the upcoming Bitcoin halving.

"We've seen over $2 billion coming into the various bitcoin ETFs so there's been this need to access more supply of bitcoin to build these ETFs and that ends up driving prices up particularly in the near term," she said.