- SEC decided to avoid a legal dispute against Grayscale Investments.
- Social engagement with Bitcoin grew, but overall sentiment began to decline.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opted not to renew a legal dispute with Grayscale Investments, a leading digital asset management company. The appeals court will soon specify how to implement this decision, which will likely include an instruction for the SEC to reconsider Grayscale’s filing.
Read the Bitcoin price forecast for 2023-2024
ETF season
ETF analyst James Seyffart confirmed that discussions between Grayscale and the SEC will begin next week, with a new response from the SEC expected within the next two weeks.
1. Made an appointment, I think this is correct. No en banc application
2. No. I don’t think they will appeal to the Supreme Court either.
3. The dialogue between Grayscale and SEC should start next week. Hoping to get more information on next steps sometime next week or the week after? https://t.co/2EayzqeKGq
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) October 13, 2023
This development fueled expectations of the potential impact on Bitcoin. However, the market’s immediate reaction to the news was relatively muted, with Bitcoin prices only up slightly by 0.15% over the past 24 hours.
The coin briefly reached $27,000 after the news, but was exchanging hands for $26,867 at the time of writing.
At the same time, excitement around the ETF’s approval increased, evidenced by a 38% increase in social mentions and engagements for BTC. However, despite this wave of excitement, weighted sentiment for Bitcoin showed a decline.
Source: Santiment
Holders remain hopeful, traders turn bearish
Notably, the NVT signal for Bitcoin hit a five-year high, reaching 1,779,542 during this period. The NVT signal refers to the ratio of network value to transaction, indicating that Bitcoin continued to attract significant transaction activity despite recent market fluctuations.
Source: Glassnode
Bitcoin hodlers also remained consistent. According to Glassnode data, the number of HODLed Bitcoins has reached a five-year high of 7,906,288,227 BTC.
This implied a strong confidence in Bitcoin’s long-term value, as these users essentially locked up their assets for longer periods of time.
📈 #Bitcoin $BTC The Number of HODLed or Lost Coins Just Reached a 5-Year High of 7,906,288,227 BTC
View statistics:https://t.co/dJK8rxBVD3 pic.twitter.com/6OxLnd611f
— Glassnode Alerts (@glassnodealerts) October 6, 2023
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However, a surprising trend emerged with an increase in the number of short positions against Bitcoin. CoinGlass data showed that the percentage of short positions taken against Bitcoin grew from 44% to 53.7%.
This could be an indication that some market participants are betting on a near-term price correction, possibly influenced by the fact that the ETF approval news does not have a more significant immediate effect on Bitcoin’s price.