The flagship crypto asset rallied strongly on the first day of the New Year, Bitcoin blasted past $45,000 for the first time since early April 2022 with favourable market conditions and strong fundamentals to approve a spot ETF for Bitcoin approaching, the price of Bitcoin has increased by more than 20% since the beginning of December.
Bitcoin’s halving is quickly approaching, and many participants in the crypto industry are passionate about the rumour that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may approve a spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) product.
The upcoming Bitcoin halving is expected to happen after the 740,000th block is reached. The block reward will drop to 3.125 coins from the current 6.25 coins because of this event.
Given that the network averages one block every ten minutes and that the time it takes to generate new blocks varies, the precise date of the halving is yet unknown.
Recent price action affirms the rally in the crypto market is triggered by the expectations that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve the introduction of numerous spot bitcoin ETFs.
According to reports published over the weekend, the regulatory body might start informing ETF sponsors on Tuesday that their applications would be accepted.
In April, Standard Chartered predicted that by the end of 2024, bitcoin would reach $100,000 in value. The British-based bank said this will depend on the number of ETFs approved
Consequently, Coinmarketcap data also shows the last time Bitcoin was above $45K was on April 5, 2022, about 1 and a half years) ago. At that time, the price of Bitcoin closed the day at $45.2K, but it then entered a protracted bear market that saw it drop as low as $15.6K.
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The race to introduce a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) reached a bureaucratic fever pitch on Friday, as many of the largest Wall Street firms completed the documentation for their offerings in advance of the highly anticipated – and potentially near – clearance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Important information was disclosed by BlackRock, Fidelity, and Invesco, along with cryptocurrency-focused companies Valkyrie and Bitwise. These included relationships with essential trading firms and the fees that their potential ETFs would impose on investors should the SEC approve them.
A significant portion of the harm inflicted by the sharp 2022 drop that shook the cryptocurrency market was restored by Bitcoin’s near-160% increase last year. During that time, the token beat both gold and global stocks, although it is still behind its record set during the epidemic in 2021, which was about $69K.
Crypto investors’ much-anticipated loosening of monetary policy in the world’s largest economy is advantageous for the haven crypto asset, an asset that is still considered volatile by a significant number of traditional investors.
