The long-awaited Ethereum Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) are finally live, registering over $100 million in volume in the first 15 minutes. Investors expect to see the impact of the launch on the crypto market, while some market watchers believe the performance of ETH ETF will kick off the Altcoin season.
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Ethereum Spot ETFs are officially live
On Monday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave the latest nod to Ethereum spot ETFs, setting the launch date for Tuesday, July 23. After the approval, investors raised the alarm following some online reports.
Per Whale Alert, Grayscale has transferred $1 billion in ETH to Coinbase Institutional. This led many investors to fear that the digital asset manager’s transaction would increase selling pressure on the asset and impact its price performance before launch.
However, ETF expert Eric Balchunas offered some relief for investors after pointing out that Grayscale wasn’t moving the tokens to dump them. The company transferred the 292,262 Ethereum “from $ETHE to its mini-me = $ETH.” Balchunas sees it as “a new variable in this race that we didn’t have in the BTC race.”
The first figures have been released now that the highly anticipated products are live. Balchunas shared on X that Ethereum ETFs saw $112 million in the first 15 minutes of trading. This number increased to a total of $361 million after 90 minutes.
The Bloomberg expert praised the volume, calling it a “solid result,” despite accounting for 20-25% of the Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs. Despite the healthy performance, ETH continues to fluctuate between the $3,440 and $3,540 price range.
Are ETH and Altcoins About to Take Off?
Ahead of the launch, some market watchers expected the ETFs’ performance could spark a rebound for Altcoins. According to several analysts, the Altcoins chart shows similarities to the 2016-2017 performance, indicating that Alt season is ‘on the horizon’.
To Crypto Jelle: “Altcoins still follow the traditional playbook for bull market preparation.” According to the macro chart, altcoins broke out of the accumulation zone and chopped around the key support levels during previous cycles.
The “pre-bull market consolidation” was followed by a takeoff that pushed cryptocurrency prices to new highs. Jelle pointed out that altcoins are currently in the consolidation zone, similar to previous cycles. He also suggested that a fresh start “shouldn’t take long” after the launch of Ethereum ETFs.
Crypto trader MikyBull too marked the similarities between the previous cycles, which indicate that a ‘massive Alt season is coming’. For the trader, the recent ‘fakeout’ led investors to believe that this cycle’s Alt season has been ‘written off’, but he expects altcoins to stage ‘some kind of explosive’ rally in 2017 that follows the same PA path.
The trader believes that the price of Ethereum can be positively influenced by ETH spot ETFs. This performance will be the main driver for the ‘huge rally in the coming months’. In addition, he set a band price goal of $10,000 for ETH.
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Other market watchers suggested that investors should remain calm if a price drop occurs. Pseudonym analyst and trader Mustache called for patience, because “it is only a matter of time.” “The Ethereum chart looks like it did in the last cycle, just before the Altcoin bull market started,” he added.
At the time of writing, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading at $3,419, down 1.1% in the past 24 hours.
Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com