Bitcoin breaches US$31,000 on BlackRock’s updated ETF; Ether gains, Polygon leads winners
Bitcoin climbed above US$31,000 in Tuesday morning trading in Asia after Blackrock refiled a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) application in the U.S. after the regulator criticised an earlier filing, suggesting the world’s biggest money manager is determined to take a lead in cryptocurrency markets. Ethereum also logged gains amid institutional interest, while other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies traded mixed. Polygon led the winners and Litecoin the losers.
Crypto
Bitcoin rose 1.83% over the last 24 hours to US$31,142 at 07:50 a.m. in Hong Kong, moving up 2.85% for the past seven days, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The world’s largest cryptocurrency reached a high of US$31,371 early Tuesday morning, the highest since June 2022.
BlackRock submitted an amended application for a spot Bitcoin ETF on Monday, after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said BlackRock’s original filing was inadequate. BlackRock indicated in the new filing that Coinbase, the custodian of the proposed ETF’s Bitcoin holdings, will provide market surveillance to support the ETF, according to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday.
Several other financial institutions have filed Bitcoin ETF applications despite a crackdown last month by the SEC, which filed lawsuits against Binance.US and Coinbase last month for allegedly violating securities laws in trading cryptocurrencies.
In emailed comments, Jeff Mei, chief operating officer of digital asset exchange BTSE, said the SEC criticism of the application caused some selling last week, but “investors remain quietly optimistic about future approvals.”
Ether gained 1.18% to US$1,954.24, and added 5.23% for the week.
Bitcoin and Ether have both seen increased interest from financial institutions in the past week, according to a Monday report from European cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares.
Bitcoin-linked digital asset investment products saw net inflows of around US$123 million in the week ending June 30, while Ethereum-linked products had net inflows of around US$2.7 million. Digital asset investment products have seen two weeks of net inflows since June 19, after logging 9 weeks of consecutive outflows.
Most other top 10 non-stablecoin tokens traded higher in the past 24 hours, with Polygon’s Matic token spearheading the rally with a gain of 4.60% to US$0.7119. It’s up 10.18% for the week despite the U.K.-based fintech neobank and crypto exchange Revolut plans to delist Polygon, Solana and Cardano tokens for its U.S. users in September, according to a report by the Block on Monday.
Litecoin led the losers in a potential price correction, falling 5.83% to US$106.69. It still logged weekly gains of 22.47% driven higher by the token’s upcoming third halving event on August 2, which will make the token scarcer.
Litecoin investors also received a boost after the token was selected to trade on the newly established EDX Markets exchange, which opened on June 20 and is backed by Wall Street heavyweights, including Citadel Securities, Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab.
The total cryptocurrency market cap rose 1.28% to US$1.22 trillion in the last 24 hours, while crypto trading volume rose 26.34% to US$37.86 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.
