A week after the market cryptos held its breath in the face of what was ultimately fake news, Bitcoin, the world’s main digital currency by trading volume, is once again starring in a stock market rally for the same reason: the expected approval by the SEC (the US regulator) of a spot bitcoin ETF in the hands of BlackRock that will flood the cryptocurrency market with liquidity, according to first estimates.
The digital currency has skyrocketed its price by more than 15% in just two sessions – on Monday it rose by more than 10% and today it added another 5% -, which has led it to stand above $34,600 at the average exchange rate. session in Europe, although in the first hours of this Tuesday its price exceeded the barrier of 35,000 dollars, maximums that it had not visited since May 2022. In its exchange to the community currency, bitcoin is above 32,600 euros. “In the last 24 hours, spot trading volume has exceeded $35 billion, representing an increase of 241%“, point out IG analysts.
It is evident that in the world crypto The drums resonate louder and louder. This same Monday the EFTs analyst from Bloomberg Intelligence Eric Balchunas he tweeted through the renowned social network that the exchange-traded fund iShares Bitcoin Trust “had already been listed in the DTCC [Depository Trust and Clearing Corp., según sus siglas en inglés]” under the ticker IBTC, which is the abbreviation with which stocks, ETFs or bonds are searched on the platform. “This does not mean that technically it has been approved,” Balchunas clarified in a later interview. “It?s not home free” he stated. “But it’s checking virtually all the boxes needed to launch an ETF. When we see that a tickerthose things usually happen just before launch,” Balchunas concluded.
In this race to get the SEC to approve spot ETFs on bitcoin, BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world and head of iShares, its brand of exchange-traded funds, stands out. But it’s not the only one. Different media also point to Fidelity Investments as another of the interested firms and that have already submitted the necessary documentation to the New York Stock Exchange regulator. It must be clarified that there are already ETFs on bitcoin futures, but not on its spot or real-time settlement price, as they do exist in the case commodities like gold or oil.
The increases that have led Bitcoin to double its price since January could be the prelude to what is to come, according to different analysts. If it finally occurs, the approval of different spot ETFs on this crypto asset will significantly increase trading volumes, with billions of new dollars in the market.