Bitcoin was far and away the best-performing asset class in 2024 as new exchange-traded funds ushered in more widespread adoption and hopes for deregulation under a new presidential administration lifted digital assets to record levels.has more than doubled in price since starting the year in the $40,000 range, with it last trading near $94,000.The most prosperous stretch of the year occurred in the weeks following the U.S. presidential election.
The year began with a strong boost of confidence from the introduction in January of new ETFs that hold the cryptocurrency. The funds, which are pitched by asset managers as a simpler way for investors to access bitcoin, have pulled in tens of billions of dollars of cash this year. The. The demand for those funds has not been as strong as for their bitcoin counterparts, but the category has still attracted more than $2 billion in net inflows in less than six months, according to FactSet.