As optimistic investors assessed the possibility that the United States will finally see a bitcoin ETF in the upcoming months, cryptocurrency prices briefly soared to start the week.
An unconfirmed report that the Securities and Exchange Commission had officially approved the iShares spot bitcoin ETF caused bitcoin to briefly spike above $30,000 on Monday morning. However, the coin quickly gave up those gains when major media outlets could not confirm the report. BlackRock informed that the SEC is still considering the application for the iShares Bitcoin ETP. According to insiders at the SEC, the report from Monday was false.
According to Coin Metrics, bitcoin recently increased by about 4% to trade at $28,193.00, while ether increased by over 1% to trade at $1,585.68.
Bitcoin spiked on Friday when it was announced that the SEC would not appeal a decision in Grayscale’s lawsuit against regulators last week. Grayscale sued the SEC in June 2022 after the agency rejected its request to convert the well-known Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into an ETF.
Grayscale’s request may be rejected by the SEC once more, but the commission has recently lost steam in its effort to broadly regulate cryptocurrency, with Grayscale proving to be a roadblock. For instance, the SEC’s denial was labeled “arbitrary and capricious” by the D.C. Court of Appeals. Many investors interpreted the news on Friday as a sign that the SEC might soon approve Grayscale’s application to list GBTC shares.
The 45-day window for requesting a rehearing under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure is now closed. According to a Grayscale spokeswoman, the Court will now issue its definitive mandate within seven calendar days. The Grayscale team is still operationally prepared to convert GBTC to an ETF upon receiving SEC approval.
Undoubtedly, bitcoin just experienced its worst week since August 18 and its first down week in six. According to Coin Metrics, it lost 4.35% for the week and ended up closing at $26,755.66. Ether experienced a weekly loss of 6.36% and closed the week at $1,544.24.
Concerns about a recession may also help bitcoin and ether. Paul Tudor Jones has been praising Bitcoin as a safe haven investment in an unstable macroeconomic environment, and JPMorgan has done the same this morning.
Although investors are apathetic about increasing their positions because of regulatory uncertainty in the U.S. crypto industry, the price of bitcoin is still under some pressure. As a result, low volume and liquidity have plagued the market, and Bitcoin could not hit new highs above $30,000.
Other crypto assets rose Monday morning because of the optimism. The top two coins by market cap, excluding stablecoins and Ripple’s XRP, Binance Coin, and Bitcoin, were each up over 1%. Cardano’s ADA token gained 2% and Solana’s SOL token gained 6% on the smart contracts platform.
Recently struggling as well, crypto assets are outperforming crypto equities. Monday morning’s early trading saw Coinbase up over 2%. Almost all mining stocks, including Riot Platforms and Marathon Digital, were up.
