News
Speculation on Ether ETF approval boosts cryptocurrency prices
Top line
The price of Ether, the cryptocurrency with the second largest market capitalization after Bitcoin, saw a massive surge late Monday, boosting the price of other major crypto tokens as moves by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission raised speculation that Ether could be traded online for regulatory approval soon.
The Ether token rose on Monday amid speculation about an imminent ETF approval.
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Main aspects
Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, rose to $3,650 on Tuesday, up more than 17.5% in the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin, the world’s most valuable crypto token, briefly topped the $71,000 mark before settling at around $70,880, up more than 6.1% from the previous day.
Other popular tokens such as Dogecoin and Binance’s BNB also increased by 8.5% and 7% respectively.
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News Peg
The rise in prices of Ether and other cryptocurrencies comes amid speculation that Ether could soon receive regulatory approval. The SEC has reportedly asked exchanges that plan to list Ether ETFs to update or refile regulatory filings called Form 19b-4. Such filings are usually made to request the SEC to change its rules to allow a new type of exchange-traded fund. Citing anonymous sources, CoinDesk reported that the SEC has asked for these documents to be filed “in an expedited manner” and the regulator could approve these requests by Thursday.
Surprising fact
Bloomberg analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas raised their odds of a spot Ether ETF approval to 75% on Monday, up from 25% previously. In a post on
Big number
61%. That’s the increase in Bitcoin’s value since the beginning of this year, driven largely by the SEC’s approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Further reading
SEC Approves Bitcoin Spot ETFs – First-of- their-Kind Crypto Funds (Forbes)