Bitcoin saw relatively modest price action compared to some popular altcoins, which saw double-digit gains after the SEC approved 11 spot BTC ETFs on Wednesday.
Several altcoins saw double-digit gains after the SEC approved 11 spot BTC ETFs on Wednesday.
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Posted January 11, 2024 at 1:48 am EST.
The milestone moment for the crypto industry didn’t quite have the effect on the leading digital asset that most would have imagined.
After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 11 spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs) on Wednesday, the price of Bitcoin rose to around $47,500, gaining a modest 2.5% compared to the second-largest crypto by market cap Ethereum, which rallied 11% to trade at $2,600.
Several leading altcoins also saw outsized gains after the SEC approval, with Ethereum Classic and Arbitrum leading the pack, rising 24% and 22% respectively over the last 24 hours.
Liquid staking provider Rocket Pool’s native token RPL and NFT aggregator Blur’s native token BLR also saw double-digit gains over the same period. At the time of writing, RPL was up 17% and BLR was up 14%.
Earlier, Unchained reported that Rocket Pool is in the early stages of making changes to the tokenomics of its native token RPL.
Bitcoin’s somewhat lacklustre price action doesn’t appear to be as much of a let down when you zoom out a little, and consider that the asset has gained 50% in the last six months alone, most of which has been attributed to the anticipation around a spot ETF approval.
Altcoins taking the limelight might also have something to do with market participants looking for the so-called “next trade,” as the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF could pave the way for existing spot Ethereum ETF applications to be approved.
New deadline to obsess over just dropped
May 23rd is the final deadline for decision on VanEck’s spot ETH ETF pic.twitter.com/dgi5EVbPeQ
— Will (@WClementeIII) January 10, 2024
According to Ophelia Snyder, co-founder of crypto custodian 21Shares, money flows into spot Bitcoin ETFs could still be months away. In an interview with CoinDesk earlier today, she said wealth management firms would likely have to go through a number of compliance processes before they can add ETFs to approved allocations.