Bitcoin
was little changed Friday, holding steady at elevated levels after a recent rally as traders remain bullish. The real star of the show was the second-largest crypto after asset manager BlackRock filed for an
Ether
exchange-traded fund.
The price of Bitcoin has declined less than 1% over the past 24 hours to $36,000, coming down from a peak near $38,000 reached on Thursday, which marked the token’s highest level since early May 2022 before cryptos slid into a brutal bear market. The largest digital asset has rallied by more than 30% in less than a month, snapping out of a prolonged stretch of historically low volatility and trading volumes.
“One reason for this strong bullish momentum could be the low circulating supply of Bitcoin on the market. 90% of Bitcoins in circulation have stayed the same for over three months … leaving any new entrant chasing the remaining 10%, pushing the price even more,” said Rachel Lin, CEO of trading platform SyFutures. “The data also suggests a strong bullish bias in the derivatives market,” she added, noting call options contracts—bullish bets that prices will rise—concentrated around price targets at the $40,000, $45,000, and $50,000 levels.
While recent optimism that interest rates have reached their peak has lifted all risk-sensitive assets that are vulnerable to higher borrowing costs, Bitcoin has vastly outperformed the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
and
S&P 500.
Much of Bitcoin’s outperformance has come amid crypto-native catalysts, namely hopes that regulators will approve the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), expected to usher in a fresh wave of investor interest in cryptos. Traders have grown more confident that approval is a matter of time since the summer, when BlackRock and other traditional financial giants filed for their own spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Now
BlackRock
(BLK) has done it again. Just as the group’s filing for a Bitcoin ETF sent prices skyward in the summer, revelations that the asset manager filed for an Ether ETF sent prices for the second-largest token to the highest levels in 18 months. Ether jumped 10% over the past 24 hours to above $2,100, having peaked near $2,150.
“Blackrock’s application for an Ethereum Spot ETF further proves that the investment world is readying itself to embrace crypto assets,” said Bradley Duke, chief strategy officer at exchange-traded product group ETC. “It makes sense that following any approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF by the SEC, approval of a spot Ethereum ETF would follow closely.”
Beyond Bitcoin and Ether, smaller tokens or altcoins were rising, with
Cardano
climbing 2% and
Polygon
popping 3%. Memecoins were less upbeat, with
Dogecoin
down 1% and
Shiba Inu
shedding 3%.
Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com
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