Bitcoin hits new all-time high, and SEC delayed spot ETH ETF decision as Tether keeps growing
DATA from CryptoCompare shows the price of Bitcoin moved up steadily throughout the last seven days, from around $64,000 to a new all-time high above $71,700, despite enduring a slight hiccup that saw it dip to around $61,500 throughout the week.
Ethereum’s Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, moved in a similar way, from around $3,400 to over $4,000, with a hiccup seeing it drop to $3,300 before the cryptocurrency recovered.
Last week saw non-fungible tokens based on Bitcoin surpassed Ethereum NFTs in terms of sales, with the growing number of Ordinals-based NFT collections fuelling the surge, which came amid heightened demand for BTC itself.
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs saw their trading volume top $10 billion in a day over the week, with BlackRock’s IBIT, Fidelity’s FBTC, Bitwise’s BITB, and Ark & 21Shares’ ARKB establishing new individual daily volume records.
Demand for these products is partly responsible for Bitcoin’s recent surge to a new all-time high, with the cryptocurrency’s price in South Korea surging beyond its price on global exchanges, developing what’s known as the “Kimchi Premium.”
The premium, which arises from several factors unique to South Korea’s cryptocurrency mark that sees local regulations restrict foreign investors from trading directly on its exchanges while potentially imposing penalties on domestic investors buying large amounts on foreign marks, surpassed 10% over the past week.
Despite the interest, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on approving options on spot Bitcoin ETFs, extending its review period for proposals submitted by Cboe Exchange and the Miami International Securities Exchange, as well as for a proposal on Nasdaq’s application to provide options on BlackRock’s IBIT ETF.
Over the week, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, the Nasdaq-listed business intelligence firm MicroStrategy, announced plans to acquire more BTC by selling $600 million in convertible senior notes. The firm already has 193,000 BTC.
Interest from institutional investors has nevertheless fueled the creation of new offerings, with Frankfurt-based stock exchange operator Deutsche Börse Group entering the cryptocurrency market through the launch of the Deutsche Börse Digital Exchange (DBDX), a platform that caters specifically to institutional clients, offering them a single access point for spot trading, settlement, and custody of crypto assets.
SEC delays decision on spot Ether ETFs from BlackRock and Fidelity
Over the week, the US Securities and Exchange Commission once again delayed its decision on the approval of spot Ether ETFs.
The SEC announced the postponement through separate filings, which marked the second time the regulator had deferred its decision on BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust and Fidelity’s Ethereum Fund. The initial delay occurred in January, shortly after the SEC gave the green light to several spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Under current regulations, the SEC has the authority to postpone a decision on an ETF application up to three times before it must make a final ruling. This continued hesitation on the part of the SEC has been widely anticipated by market analysts, who predict that a decision on spot Ether ETFs may not be coming until May.
The SEC delayed its decision on the ETFs one week ahead of the Ethereum network’s highly-anticipated Dencun upgrade, which will introduce proto-danksharding to help the network scale, at a time in which its transaction fees surged to a near two-year high.
Tether’s USDT hits $100 billion market cap
Over the week Tether’s USDT, the leading stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, surpassed a significant milestone, reaching a market capitalization of over $100 billion after growing over 9% year-to-date.
Tether's widespread adoption is bolstered by its availability across 14 different blockchains, allowing for greater integration with various decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and cryptocurrency exchanges.
The stablecoin issuer maintains that its USDT token is backed 1:1 through its reserves, made up primarily of short-term U.S. Treasury Bills and other cash equivalents, while also including Bitcoin and gold.
Over the week, the firm also launched a USDT recovery tool, allowing investors to migrate USDT tokens between blockchains in case a blockchain the tokens are circulating on faces disruption.
Meanwhile, BlockFi reached an in-principle settlement of $874.5 million with the estates of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its sister firm Alameda Research as it navigates its own Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
Francisco Memoria is a content creator at CryptoCompare who’s in love with technology and focuses on helping people see the value digital currencies have. His work has been published in numerous reputable industry publications. Francisco holds various cryptocurrencies.
