Weekly Market Wrap: ETF developments bolsters Bitcoin above US$26,000
Bitcoin rose 1.1% from Sept. 1 to Sept. 8 to US$26,267 as of 3:30 p.m. Friday in Hong Kong. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has been trading below US$30,000 since Aug. 9, according to CoinMarketCap data.
After falling to a weekly low of US$25,413 last Friday, Bitcoin briefly rose above US$26,000 on Sunday and Monday before regaining the support level on Friday.
“Despite Grayscale’s recent court win, investor confidence in Bitcoin remains subdued. The court victory failed to boost the Bitcoin price,” Lucas Kiely, the chief investment officer of digital asset platform Yield App, told Forkast.
“The lackluster response indicates generally bearish sentiment in the crypto sector. Investors are increasingly diversifying their portfolios with assets other than Bitcoin, such as stocks or real estate. While the crypto markets have been relatively quiet in recent months, the stock market offers them more volatility and therefore opportunity.”
On Tuesday, asset manager Grayscale’s lawyers sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requesting a meeting with the agency about the path to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an exchange-traded fund (ETF). Grayscale’s lawyers said that there are no grounds for the SEC to continue to block the conversion.
On Wednesday, asset manager Ark Invest filed for a spot Ether ETF in the U.S., naming Coinbase as a custodian. If accepted, this would be the first publicly traded Ether ETF in the U.S. Despite the positive development, Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, inched up 0.16% over the week to US$1,647.
On the same day, Bitcoin received institutional fair value accounting approval from the Financial Accounting Standards Board. The long-awaited rules will kick in in 2025, allowing companies with large Bitcoin holdings to report their assets at fair value, capturing the most up-to-date value of the asset and making it easier for companies to hold Bitcoin.
