The price of bitcoin swung close to $38,000, hitting May 2022 highs early Thursday, on continued expectations U.S. regulators will approve a bitcoin exchange traded fund. Meanwhile, Ethereum spiked after BlackRock appeared to register an ETH ETF. Cryptocurrency prices and related stocks surged Thursday.
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened talks with Grayscale Investments (GBTC) to discuss details about its application to convert its bitcoin trust product into a spot bitcoin ETF, CoinDesk reported citing a person familiar with the matter. A U.S. appeals court in October ordered the SEC to review Grayscale’s ETF application. The panel of judges for the U.S. District of Columbia Court of Appeals previously ruled that the regulator’s rejection of the application was arbitrary.
Meanwhile, a brief window for the SEC to potentially approve all 12 current spot bitcoin ETF applications opened beginning on Thursday, Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart reported via X, the site formerly known as Twitter.
The current approval period will be open for at least days, lasting until Nov. 17. The SEC issued delay orders for BlackRock (BLK), Bitwise (BITW), VanEck, WisdomTree (WT), Invesco (IVZ), Fidelity and Valkyrie at the same time. The deadline to submit rebuttal comments was Nov. 8. The regulator could theoretically make a decision on nine of the ETF applications at any point until Jan. 10, Seyffart added. Bloomberg forecasts a 90% chance of approval by Jan. 10.
Elsewhere, about $86.8 million in bitcoin short positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours as of Thursday morning, CoinGlass data shows. CoinGlass noted a short squeeze occurred late Wednesday night as bitcoin price climbed above $36,000, according to a post on X.
Ethereum Rally
Ethereum prices rallied Thursday after BlackRock (BLK) appeared to register an iShares Ethereum Trust in the state of Delaware, according to Thursday filings.
The world’s largest asset manager filed for a bitcoin ETF with the SEC in June. Reuters reported BlackRock registered its bitcoin trust in a similar manner before filing an application with the SEC a week later.
“If act one is a spot bitcoin ETF, then act two is a spot ethereum ETF,” wrote Diogo Monica, co-founder and president of Anchorage Digital, in an email to IBD. Crypto unicorn Anchorage Digital offers full-stack API infrastructure to bring crypto to institutional clients.
“A spot ethereum ETF would have a similar impact as a bitcoin counterpart, providing a regulated and accessible wrapper for institutions and consumers to participate in the ETH ecosystem,” Monica wrote. “But ethereum adds an extra layer of intrigue as a proof-of-stake asset, which means underlying ETH could also be staked for additional rewards.”
Approval of a spot ethereum ETF would drive institutional demand for staking services, and further participation in ethereum staking would improve the scalability and security of the network, he added.
Bitcoin Price
The price of bitcoin traded around $37,000 early Friday after peaking at $37,960 intraday Thursday, its highest level since May 2022. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has soared more than 123% so far this year.
Ethereum rallied back near $2,100 Friday morning after reclaiming its $2,000 level Thursday for the first time since mid-July. The No. 2 crypto is up 74% in 2023.
Coinbase (COIN) stock surged 2.5% premarket Friday, adding to its 5.1% jump Thursday. Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (MARA) added 3% early Friday and spiked nearly 8% Thursday. GBTC shares were little changed early Friday and swung 5.3% higher Thursday.
You can follow Harrison Miller for more stock news and updates on X/Twitter @IBD_Harrison
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