Bitcoin is heading to complete its seventh consecutive week of gains, with its recovery to the $38,364 level today, which is slightly close to the highest levels for this year. Ethereum also touched the $2,100 level this morning and is also heading to close in the second week of gains.
The crypto market moves come with more moves by asset managers as they launch spot bitcoin ETFs. Earlier this week, a meeting took place between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and asset managers BlackRock and Grayscale.
While these meetings come within the framework of discussing the SEC’s requirements and allaying its concerns, which stand in the way of launching these funds.
Based on these meetings, Bloomberg analysts believe that this is part of the preparations for the launch of these ETFs which maybe near and may take place during the first days of the new year, with the authority potentially approving the asset managers’ applications at once.
It seems that the continuation of Bitcoin’s upward momentum since mid-October reflects the markets’ adherence to their expectations of the possibility of actually launching spot Bitcoin ETFs, although there is nothing that may confirm this at the present time. Winning this bet could direct to hundreds of billions of dollars in inflows into Bitcoin.
Meanwhile, regulatory concerns continue to cloud the sector despite markets trying to overlook the resulting negative sentiment.
However, yesterday we witnessed a talk from one of the SEC Commissioners, Hester Peirce, who spoke about how many law enforcement procedures in the sector were somewhat arbitrary.
While Peirce spoke about the need to focus on issues that may involve real harm and then focus on registering issues in the sector. Peirce also emphasized that congressional involvement would be very helpful in in allocating regulatory authority.
Indeed, the continued absence of features of the regulatory and legislative environment that govern this market may continue to hinder the growth and widespread adoption of crypto technology in the United States.
This is not what may worry investors in this market either, as the continued cases of piracy and theft of cryptocurrencies may continue to weaken participants’ confidence, although not to that significant compared to other negative factors surrounding the sector. According to data provided by DeFiLlama, about $330 million in cryptocurrencies were stolen last November, which represents the highest level this year.
