Can Bitcoin rise to $100,000? Illustration photo. (Source: Shutterstock)

The big event of 2024 for bitcoin could come next month, when US regulators are expected to approve an application to open the first bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US market.

Simply put, a bitcoin spot ETF allows investors to track the price of bitcoin without actually owning the coin.

This is attractive to investors for a number of reasons.

First, it gives crypto-wary investors a relatively safe way to enter this volatile market.

ETFs also trade on regular stock exchanges, meaning investors can gain exposure to bitcoin without having to hold the crypto asset directly.

In addition , the supervision of regulatory agencies also increases investor protection and transparency of the cryptocurrency market. These advantages attract more investment capital into bitcoin.

Not only that, 2024 will also see an "earthquake" in the cryptocurrency sector, which is bitcoin halving. The bitcoin halving process is to halve the rewards that miners receive, helping to slow down the inflation of bitcoin.

Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of crypto-asset lending company Nexo, said that if history repeats itself, bitcoin will not peak until 2025 and 2024 will only serve as a run-up to the phenomenon.

“The ‘double-leverage’ effect of the approval of a spot bitcoin ETF and the halving event would push bitcoin’s value to $100,000 — a 45% increase from the coin’s all-time high of $69,000 recorded in November 2021,” he stressed.