Crypto had an exciting and volatile week, with all eyes on the imminent approval of spot bitcoin (BTC) ETFs in the US. The Nasdaq Crypto Index (NCI) finished the week slightly up by 0.7%, fueled by ether’s (ETH) remarkable 11.3% upward move, which was counterbalanced by BTC’s -3.6% downturn. These opposite moves suggest a capital rotation by market participants as the race for spot BTC ETFs in the US finally came to a resolution.

 

 

Spot BTC ETFs Approved and Launched in the US

Last Wednesday, after many months of anticipation, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved spot BTC ETFs in the US. On Thursday, these products amassed $4.6 billion in volume, making it what analysts have deemed the most successful single asset ETF launch in US history by traded volumes. Inflows in the first couple trading sessions were also impressive, gathering a total of $1.4 billion, with BlackRock’s IBIT leading the pack with $497.7 million, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC $422.3 million inflows and Bitwise’s BITB $237.9 million grand total.

 

SEC’s Official X Account Gets Compromised And Tweets A Fake Approval Statement

Last Tuesday, just one day prior to the approval, the official SEC X account posted a tweet portraying Chairman Gary Gensler in what seemed to be his public statement following the acceptance of spot BTC ETFs. Whilst people started looking for official approval forms on the SEC’s website and couldn’t find them, Gensler came publicly just a few minutes later on his own X account stating that the regulator's X account had been compromised and that “an unauthorized tweet was posted.” He finished the message stating that, as of late Tuesday, the SEC had not “approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.”

 

Bullish Sentiment Shifts To ETH

While the real SEC approval followed just one day after the fake post on X, ETH experienced a pretty significant bullish reversal on its BTC pair at the moment when the fake news came in. This move suggests that market participants have started rotating capital to the second largest crypto asset after more than a year of underperformance against BTC, in what could be explained by a narrative shift from spot BTC ETFs to potential spot ETH ETFs coming later in 2024.

 

From Hashdex: 

Our Research Team has recently released Hashdex’s Q4 2023 Market Pulse, covering our quarterly market update, key storylines in the digital asset space, and ecosystem developments that are impacting crypto’s investment case. Click here to read it and get up-to-date with the crypto’s latest state as 2023 came to an end.

Also, last Wednesday, our CIO Samir Kerbage joined our Head of Global Insights, Gerry O’Shea, and Michael Venuto, CIO of Tidal Financial Group, for a discussion on the race for spot bitcoin ETFs in the US, covering both the short and long term perspectives for the asset class as new pools of capital can finally access it through regulated vehicles in the world’s largest capital market. Watch the replay here.

 

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