Resume:
- Bitcoin posted near double-digit gains in the past 24 hours following ETF filings from giant TradFi players like BlackRock.
- BTC traded above USD 28,800 on Monday, up more than 7% in the past 1 day according to data from TradingView and CMC.
- $8 trillion asset manager BlackRock filed a Bitcoin ETF with the SEC to boost other filings amid an ongoing crackdown on crypto in the US.
Bitcoin, crypto’s largest token by market capitalization, dropped to $29,000 during trading hours on June 21 due to growing interest from major institutional players in traditional finance.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, BTC posted nearly double-digit gains on Wednesday. The token is up more than 7% in the last 24 hours and has traded around $28,900 on crypto trading platforms.
The price of BTC strangely also skyrocketed on Binance US, peaking at around $138,000 in the early hours of Wednesday before reclaiming parity with spot market prices in the $28,000 range.
It is not yet clear what caused the price spike on Binance’s US platform, although this is not the first time such an incident has happened in recent times.
ETF application boom after BlackRock Bitcoin interest
The prevailing assumption is that Bitcoin is on the rise thanks to interest from institutional TradFi players like BlackRock.
Indeed, the $8 trillion asset manager has applied for a Bitcoin ETF, a product that was infamously rejected by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over alleged concerns about market manipulation.
In particular, the company has an excellent track record of submitting ETPs overall with 575 successful applications against 1 failed attempt.
BlackRock also owns a whopping 6% stake in Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of BTC with approximately 140,000 Bitcoins worth more than $3 billion.
The company’s interest in MSTR has seemingly led to speculation and hope among proponents that institutional players are making big bets on BTC, and perhaps by extension, the broader crypto market.
At the very least, BlackRock’s move has prompted other TradFi entities like WisdomTree and Invesco to take a chance on a Bitcoin ETF application.
The interest from these players comes at a time when the SEC dropped the hammer on crypto’s two largest centralized exchanges Binance and Coinbase.
According to the SEC, both platforms have violated securities laws by operating unregistered stock exchanges and offering illegal securities tokens. A basket of cryptos including SOL, ADA and MATIC was listed in the respective lawsuits.
Trading platforms such as eToro and Robinhood have subsequently removed some of these tokens to mitigate potential regulatory impact.