Bitcoin hovers around $45K as crypto holds breath for spot ETFs

Bitcoin spot ETF season is like the Superbowl for bitcoin speculators

January 8, 2024 10:11 am

Artwork by Crystal Le

Bitcoin has almost fully recovered from a recent 10% fall and is now close to retesting 21-month highs set earlier this month.

BTC jumped about 3% Monday morning to briefly hit $45,235 — about 1.5% below local highs set on Jan. 2. Bitcoin has since retraced slightly.

All this while spot ETF hopefuls lodge some of their final documents ahead of the first of the SEC’s approval deadlines this week.

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BlackRock, Grayscale, VanEck and others have disclosed their proposed management fees for their respective ETFs, with investors expected to favor products that carry the lowest costs.

Analysts are almost certain the SEC will approve the funds — which must accumulate actual bitcoin on behalf of shareholders — to mark the first-ever such products to list in the US.

Three spot bitcoin ETFs already trade in Canada and the largest holds about $1.5 billion in bitcoin on behalf of its shareholders.

Bitcoin is now up by about half over the past six months and by more than 160% over the past year.

Bitcoin’s gains, now more than double ether’s, have been largely attributed to hype surrounding spot ETF.

BlackRock and Fidelity similarly filed for spot ether ETFs shortly after their bitcoin proposals but it hasn’t done much to close the gap between the top-two cryptocurrencies.

In fact, the ETH/BTC ratio has dropped almost 10% since BlackRock’s spot ether filing on Nov. 16. The ratio measures the cost of 1 ETH in terms of bitcoin; currently 0.05038 ETH and one-third down over the past year.

It’s the ratio’s lowest point since April 2021, when bitcoin was worth $60,000.

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