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Bitcoin climbed higher to finish the week as investors took some comfort in the concept that outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF (GBTC) might be beginning to taper off.
The value of the cryptocurrency climbed greater than 5% to $42,048.10 in line with Coin Metrics, pushing its weekly gains into the green by lower than 1%.
Ether was up 2% Friday, trading at $2,270.92. It’s on pace, nonetheless, to post an almost 9% decline for the week.
Thursday “registered one among the bottom days in net outflows from GBTC and the third consecutive day of declining outflows, which could indicate the start of a slowdown in redemptions,” Needham’s John Todaro said in a note.
“While it has been difficult to quantify how way more should come out of GBTC, we imagine two of the most important drivers of selling [– outflows driven by the FTX estate and arbitrage funds –] are nearly done,” he added.
On Thursday JPMorgan strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou made an identical commentary, saying “GBTC profit taking has largely happened already … this could imply that almost all of the downward pressure on bitcoin from that channel ought to be largely behind us.”
Bitcoin dropped sharply in the beginning of the week, falling under $39,000 for the primary time since early December in a widely expected correction following the approval and launch of spot bitcoin ETFs within the U.S.
The carnage earlier this week wasn’t as bad as some chart analysts had projected. Although charts indicate bitcoin’s long-term uptrend still holds, some analysts expected the cryptocurrency to fall to as little as $36,000.
Bitcoin mining stocks have outperformed the cryptocurrency. Riot Platforms rose 6% Friday. It’s set to realize 9% this week, which might mark its first positive week in five. Marathon Digital is higher by 10% and heading in the right direction for an 11% weekly gain.
—CNBC’s Gina Francolla contributed reporting
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