Bitcoin jumps to 21-month high with ETF approval seen imminent

Fidelity, Invesco and Galaxy Digital and WisdomTree were among other firms that filed amended S-1 applications with the SEC. The regulator has until January 10 to take action on at least one of their applications, and crypto insiders have speculated the regulator will use that date to announce a slew of decisions at once.

SEC chairman Gary Gensler issued a warning on Monday on the social media platform X about the risks that often come when investing in crypto.

“Billions of dollars of crypto long positions were liquidated last week when an analyst report suggested SEC will reject this week,” said Teong Hng, chief executive at crypto investment firm Satori Research. “Bullish reports today, by the likes of Standard Chartered Bank estimating between $US50 to $US100B of inflow into bitcoin ETF this year adding fuel to the rally.”

Other smaller cryptocurrencies were most higher, with Ethereum up about 3.8 per cent, and Cardano, Solana’s SOL and Polkadot up anywhere from 7 per cent to 9 per cent. Bitcoin accounts for a little more than half of the crypto’s $US1.7 trillion market capitalisation.

Shares of so-called crypto companies were mostly higher. Coinbase Global, the largest US crypto exchange gained about 2.3 per cent, while bitcoin miners Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms were both up more than 7 per cent. MicroStrategy, the software maker which has served as a proxy for many equity investors who want expose to bitcoin, fell about 1.2 per cent.

Bloomberg