TheIf I put 100 dollars in Ethereum price of Bitcoin (BTC) has been maintaining within a certain range, with no significant upward or downward movement. It hovers around $30,500 without clear directional bias.

While the lack of volatility can be interpreted as a market lacking catalysts, the reality is quite different, as there are still many exciting developments in the crypto industry. With the diminishing impact of ETFs on Bitcoin prices, Bitcoin mining has emerged as a new speculative opportunity.

Standard Chartered, Vanguard Group, and Jack Dorsey are all institutional participants driving this narrative. Experts suggest that with institutional funds pouring into the Bitcoin mining space, the dominance of this flagship cryptocurrency will soon come to an end.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) remains in a state of calm, freely and effortlessly moving within a stable market range around $30,500. Despite the upcoming release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday and ongoing discussions surrounding ETFs, the Federal Reserve remains unaffected. 

The economic stagnation indicates that the impact of these fundamental factors is dissipating, and a new sense of excitement seems to be emerging.

BTC/USD Daily Chart, Source: TradingView.

As more institutional investors continue to pour funds into mining, the process of creating new Bitcoin tokens has become a new topic in the cryptocurrency realm. According to recent reports, Vanguard Group, an asset management company with over $70 billion in assets, acquired a 10.24% stake in Riot, the world's largest Bitcoin mining company.

In the same spirit, Jack Dorsey's group has also showcased plans to launch a comprehensive Bitcoin mining infrastructure, including hardware and software, as part of their vision for 2024.

Additionally, according to the announcement, Bloc aims to address concerns regarding the availability, high costs, reliability, and power consumption of mining rigs, which have been proven to be significant "pain points" and "technical challenges" for the mining community.

These forays into the Bitcoin mining space align with Standard Chartered's recent analysis, which suggests that the convergence of increased mining profitability and a shortage in flagship token supply might create favorable conditions for Bitcoin price appreciation.

Based on this line of thinking, the London-based banking company has revised its market value prediction for the king of cryptocurrencies from $100,000, as reported by Reuters in April, to $120,000 by 2024.

Currently, Bitcoin miners are almost sending 100% of the BTC they mine to the market. However, if the Bitcoin price continues to rise over time, the proportion of tokens sent may significantly decrease.

Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that nearly 93% of the total Bitcoin supply has already been mined. This means that out of all the Bitcoins that will ever exist, only around 7% are left to be mined.

Cryptocurrency market data aggregator Kaiko has made allegations regarding the vested interests of major industry participants. The data shows that since early 2023, the price of Bitcoin has surged by 280% to 420%, significantly outperforming the performance of Bitcoin spot prices.

Kaiko attributes its significant increase in revenue to the rise in Bitcoin prices, speculation surrounding BRC-20 token standards, and the emergence of metaverse projects, as these have led to an increase in revenue streams. For outsiders, metaverse projects allow the creation of NFTs on the BTC network, while BRC-20 tokens represent a class of meme coins, including Pepe (Pepe) and Wojak Coin (Wojak).

With the upcoming next Bitcoin mining halving scheduled for April 2024, the rewards for mining Bitcoin transactions will be reduced by 50%. This means that the amount of new coins given to miners will also be halved. If history is any indication and Bitcoin follows previous cycles, the market value of the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is expected to increase.

As litigation and institutional interest in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, continue to grow, market participants speculate about the potential if institutional companies adopt Bitcoin on a large scale driven by the mining industry. In such a scenario, Bitcoin's ultimate potential would receive approval from financial regulatory institutions.