Bitcoin (BTC), the traditionally biggest crypto by market cap hit $30,000 today and stayed there, 2 month and 20 days after it hit the same mark in April. Word on the street is that Wall Street is not only exploring investing in digital gold but actually going for it. BlackRock‘s recent Bitcoin ETF saw a massive following and appetite from crypto enthusiasts and institutional investors who had been in extended bear mode, and bank-backed EDX Markets announced its launch and opened for trading.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulators going after Binance and Coinbase had spooked the market over the past week, dipping BTC below $25k but now the entire cryptocurrency market is in the green.
Read: Can Bitcoin’s bull rush to $30k stall?
EDX Markets is a new digital asset exchange backed by Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and Citadel Securities and it followed them having successfully completing of a funding round with new equity partners. These are traditional finance players dipping their toes into cryptocurrency markets. According to a press release, the company will launch EDX Clearing later this year to settle trades on EDX Markets.
This comes a week after digital asset management firm CoinShares released a sentiment report showing renewed interest in BTC among institutional investors following Blackrock’s bid for a Bitcoin ETF.
BlackRock is only the world’s biggest asset manager and last week sought a license from the same spooked SEC for a spot Bitcoin ETF. A spot Bitcoin ETF avails immediate exposure to BTC and differs greatly from what is already available with BTC futures ETF linked to the futures market.
The SEC is not one to quickly approve applications, but BlackRock is no rolling stone, and its rock-solid reputation and track performance were enough for the SEC to grant its wishes, despite a tough regulatory crackdown, and this approval launched a snowball effect in crypto markets.
BlackRock, after all, was managing $9.5 trillion in assets, when it applied to the SEC for a Bitcoin ETF.
Bitcoin has come a long way from the start of the year when it was languishing at $16,615 per coin. It’s now up more than 80% since the new year, but still well below its near $70k all-time high in November 2021.
There have been several applications made to the SEC for a spot ETF, but none were more successful than BlackRock’s which send ripples through the market and many saw it as as a signal of growing mainstream acceptance of the cryptocurrency market.
This week’s rally has buried memories of a recent negative trend and squared eyes on a return to $$32.4k which came into view just a year ago in June 2022.
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