Ethereum Soars to 20-Month High as Bitcoin ETF Approval Boosts Altcoin Gains

Several large-cap cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, Solana, Cardano and others, rose following the approval of a Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) in the US.

BTC’s price traded mostly flat following the news, posting a modest gain of 1.35% to trade at $46,258 at the time of writing. This price performance is surprising considering the hype and enthusiasm the applications have generated in recent months.

Several analysts had predicted that the adoption of ETFs could be a sell-the-news development. K33 research senior analyst Vetle Lunde claimed that the price movement of BTC following the rumored January 9 SEC approval of fake ETFs showed that the “ETF approval rehearsal is promoting a sell-the-news reaction.”

However, crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe was that the price of BTC could improve “with deal flow on the ETF approval.” He added that this could be the cycle where the price of BTC would rise above $300,000.

Meanwhile, data from CryptoSlate show that the other top 10 digital assets by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins, posted gains of more than 4% in the past day. It is striking that ETH has risen by 10% to over $2600, the highest value since May 2022.

Similarly, the high-flying SOL token rose 4% to reclaim the $100 level, while ADA, BNB, Avalanche, XRP and Dogecoin gained 14%, 5%, 13%, 6% and 7% respectively.

Moreover, the total crypto market rose 4% to $1.77 trillion.

A liquidation of more than $270 million follows ETF approval

The price movement of these digital assets resulted in the liquidation of approximately $272 million from more than 85,000 traders.

Mint glass facts shows that Bitcoin traders lost nearly $85 million during the reporting period, with most of the losses borne by traders betting on a bullish price move for the top cryptocurrency.

Conversely, Ethereum’s price rise resulted in significant losses for short traders who were betting on an upward price move. This group of traders lost $54 million, while long traders suffered about $30 million in losses.

Notably, the most substantial liquidation was a $3.81 million short position against Ethereum on Binance.

Other prominent assets such as Solana, XRP and BNB also saw liquidations worth $12.53 million, $3.81 million and $793,000 respectively.

Meanwhile, traders on Binance and OKX were responsible for more than $190 million of the total losses during the reporting period.