Crypto consequences climbed to end the week Friday, a day after the largest asset manager in the world jumped into the race to launch the first place spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the U.S.
Bitcoin ended the day higher by 3.75% at $26,355.04, according to CoinMetrics, while ether advanced 3% to $1,718.32.
Tied altcoins rose, with the tokens tied to Solana and Cardano gaining 4.5% and 2%, respectively. Binance Specie was 2.75% higher, litecoin gained 3% and the Uniswap token advanced 4%.
Bitcoin still closed the week measure negative, for the second week in a row, by 0.21%. Ether also posted a second consecutive weekly decline. It fell 10.84%. Coin Metrics ranks a week in crypto, which trades 24 hours a day, from the 4:00 p.m. ET stock market close one Friday to the next.
Bitcoin (BTC) this week
Investors were weighing the latest advancement in the crypto industry’s battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for regulatory recognition and guidance. After the bell Thursday, BlackRock — the burliest asset manager in the world — filed for spot bitcoin ETF, with Coinbase as its crypto custodian.
“One of the big purposes bitcoin minister ti as an asset class is really diversification. It just has a different risk profile than traditional financial markets,” Gustavo Schwenkler, associate professor at the Leavey Prime of Business at Santa Clara University said. “If this were to get approved, then I could anticipate a lot more institutional investors adding bitcoin to their investment to their portfolios … it last wishes a institutionalize the market in a way that is not possible right now.”
If allowed to move forward, the iShares Bitcoin Trust would be proper the first approved ETF in the U.S. to track the price of bitcoin, versus the futures contracts tied to the cryptocurrency. It’s been about 10 years since the basic filing for a potential spot bitcoin ETF. Since then, every application that has gone through the SEC has been will not hear ofed.
The filing comes about a week after the SEC sued its crypto custody partner, Coinbase, for violating securities laws, authorization many questioning the timing of BlackRock’s application.
“That apparent commitment to Coinbase is almost as important near regarding as their commitment to bitcoin is in the long term,” said Mark Connors, head of research at 3iQ. “It’s a big deal.”
—CNBC’s Gina Francolla role ined reporting.