By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 26th, 2024
The Bitcoin community is expecting a Bitcoin ETF to begin trading today or tomorrow. BTC price is moving higher in anticipation of the launch.
Bitcoin (BTC) price is fast closing in on its highest-ever price level of almost $65,000 as the market prepares for the first BTC US futures ETF. BTC surged past the $62K mark, continuing a run of form from Friday that saw the crypto scale $60K. Bitcoin has been riding a five-month high, but really hit its stride in the past week. As Siddharth Menon, COO of WazirX put it:
“Bitcoin has been on a tremendous bull run since more than a week. BTC rallied close to the $63K mark ahead of speculation regarding the Bitcoin Futures ETF launch on Monday.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seems all set to permit the first US Bitcoin futures ETF this week. This signals a watershed moment for the crypto industry and ends an eight-year wait for a security tracking the crypto. Asset manager ProShares already announced plans to launch a BTC futures ETF immediately, on Monday, pending final approval. Furthermore, ProShares says they already filed an updated prospectus late Friday with the SEC. This means investors with brokerage accounts will be exposed to BTC through the platform.
However, exposure to Bitcoin does not necessarily translate to buying the crypto. It simply implies investors can now bet on the price swings of an underlying asset without outrightly owning it. The SEC believes a futures-based BTC ETF is a better arrangement than the direct purchase of the tokens. Also, it is worth noting that the SEC never formally declared the approval of the futures ETF, and it probably never would. What the SEC did was suggest that it would no longer stand in the way of any moves to launch one. Following this development, several other companies, including Invesco and Valkyrie are looking to launch their own ETFs in the weeks ahead.
Bank of England Deputy Governor Calls For Proper Crypto Supervision Amid Bitcoin Price Surge and Impending ETFs
Although the surging Bitcoin price and ETF are generating a lot of buzz within the crypto space, some institutional voices are calling for caution. A few days ago, Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor of the Bank of England, said BTC’s volatile spike might compromise financial stability. Furthermore, Cunliffe likened the BTC situation to the global financial meltdown from 2008.
The influential central banker said that the introduction of thorough and proper oversight over the crypto space is the only thing that will negate this. Cunliffe acknowledged that crypto is more or less here to stay, and is now part of most financial conversations. As examples, he cited the exposure of leading banks to digital assets, growth of hedge funds, and payment companies accepting crypto.
Bitcoin is not the only digital asset to see huge gains in recent times. Major altcoin, and second-largest crypto by market cap, Ethereum, also registered gains. As of press time, ETH is trading close to $4,000. Furthermore, other altcoins such as Cardano and Dogecoin also registered marginal gains. Lastly, Solana, Shiba Inu, and Binance Coin have made significant upticks within the last 24 hours.
