Bitcoin has rallied more than 37% since the beginning of 2023 and is on pace for its best monthly return since October 2021.

Analysts have pointed to the weakening dollar, inflation expectations, and institutional buying support catalyzing this rally.

The fading impact from squeezed short positions, as well as troubled firms needing to cash in their profits on bitcoin, make $25,000 the next key price level to watch.

Currently changing hands at $23,000, bitcoin (BTC-USD) is trading at its highest level since August.

And macro investors appear to be leading the rally, according to Noelle Acheson, author of the Crypto Is Macro Now newsletter.

For those investors, “BTC is a [crypto] ecosystem gateway,” she said, pointing to the rise in bitcoin’s market capitalization relative to all crypto assets, which has risen to 44% from 41% in past 14 days.

“Bitcoin is an extreme risk-on asset and those assets will do well when interest rates finally begin to fall again,” Michael Bentley, CEO of Euler Labs, which operates a crypto lending protocol, said over email.

Year to date, the total market capitalization for cryptocurrencies is up 24% to $1.04 trillion according to Coinmarketcap. On exchanges worldwide, crypto spot trading volume has risen 64% to $4 trillion over the same period, according to crypto indexing platform Nomics.

For bitcoin alone, trading volume has jumped 82% to $1.15 trillion, putting the largest cryptocurrency behind only stablecoin Tether (USDT-USD) as the most traded…