Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.
The last 48-hours have been very crucial for the cryptocurrency market as investors seemed to have been majorly disappointed after the SEC extended its ruling on the CBOE Bitcoin ETF to the end of September. The decision has been followed by an aftermath in the price of Bitcoin along with many other altcoins losing heavily. The ultimate result is that the overall cryptocurrency market valuation has hit the lowest in 2018.
In the last 48-hours, the charts on CoinMarketCap show that the cryptocurrency market has lost more than $30 billion and is currently trading to its 2018 low of $223 billion. Market sentiment seems to be going in the favor of bears with little hope of quick recovery from these levels. This drop of over 10% in the market valuation has caused it to hit the lowest levels after the November 2017.
Although the CBOE exchange-traded-fund (ETF) was related to Bitcoin, what needs to be observed is that other competitors like Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, etc. have reacted even worse. These cryptocurrencies have corrected between 8-15% in the last two days.
The only positive factor for Bitcoin enthusiasts is that the Bitcoin dominance in the cryptocurrency market has reached an eight-month high of 48.8%. This is indicative of the fact that more number of crypto investors are getting towards buying Bitcoins or either switching back to using fiat currencies.
This is also indicative of the fact that after so much volatility shown by the crypto market, investors are less willing to opt for high-risk alternatives. The total market cap of Bitcoin currently stands at $109 billion while the rest of the digital currencies combined stands at $116 billion, at the press time.
SEC Has 9 Bitcoin ETFs to Clear In Just Next 2 Months
Although the final ruling of the proposed rule change for the CBOE Bitcoin ETF has been shifted to September end, the SEC has still to decide the fate of nine more Bitcoin ETFs in the coming two months. However, the VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin ETF filed on behalf of the CBOE is the only ‘physical’ Bitcoin ETF.
The decision for the two Bitcoin ETF funds filed by ProShares is pending on the 23rd of August, NYSE Arca has proposed the rule change for this product last year in December 2017. This is the final extension on which SEC has to decide on the Proshares Bitcoin ETF, but indicates that once the investment product is registered in the U.S. Federal Register, the SEC can extend the decision up to a period of 240 days.
Canada’s top investment and wealth management firm Canaccord Genuity recently released a report stating that the SEC may extend the decision of CBOE Bitcoin ETF as much as it can and this can go up to March 2019.
By September there will be a series of deadlines for Bitcoin ETF, which include two funds by GraniteShares and four funds from Direxion.