Bitcoin soars to 18-month high

Bitcoin, on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, rose by nearly 10 per cent to $34,872, its highest in nearly a year-and-a-half, mounting speculation that an exchange-traded bitcoin fund is imminent.

This followed a 10 per cent surge on Monday, when bitcoin posted its best day in almost a year, and the bullishness spread across the wider crypto market and into related stocks.

Any approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of an Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) that owns bitcoin on behalf of fund investors is predicted to fuel demand.

A spot bitcoin ETF, the argument goes, would allow investors previously wary of crypto access to the asset via the stock market, ushering in a new wave of capital to the sector.

“The value of … any asset, basically, is the amount of people using it. So the ETF would make a large audience and increase liquidity,” Reuters quoted the chief investment officer at Saxo, Steen Jakobsen, as saying.

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Bitcoin, a volatile asset whose price has doubled so far this year, was last up 9.51 per cent at $34,530, the highest level since May last year.

The second-largest cryptocurrency, ether, climbed 6.82 per cent to $1,825.50, its highest since August.

Crypto-linked shares such as major U.S. exchange Coinbase Global and bitcoin owner MicroStrategy rose in after-hours trade.

Investment giant BlackRock is among several major U.S. financial firms with pending applications for bitcoin ETFs.

Speculation on their likely approval was fuelled by BlackRock’s iShares ETF listing on the website of clearing house DTCC.

It was unclear when or why the iShares ETF was added to the DTCC list.

DTCC and BlackRock did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Anticipation also grew after reports this month that the SEC won’t appeal a court ruling it had been wrong to reject an ETF application from crypto firm Grayscale Investments.

On Monday, the court formalized its ruling, sending the application back to the SEC for review.

“The SEC being pressured by the courts increases the probability of an ETF approval,” the Standard Chartered’s head of digital assets research, Geoffrey Kendrick, said.

The Star