Ethereum price reaches $4,000 for the first time in two years. This comes amid continued speculation that a spot Ether exchange-traded fund could be approved in the United States.
According to The Block’s price page, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is up 4% in the last 24 hours, 15% over the past week, and 68% over the past month.
Ether last traded at this level in December 2021, the month after it reached an all-time high of $4,868 on Coinbase. Ether subsequently fell 82% to its bear market low of $880 in June 2022 due to the impact of cryptocurrency market turmoil, including the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and the subsequent bankruptcy of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Meanwhile, the GM 30 index, which represents the top 30 cryptocurrencies, rose 3% to 150.04 over the past 24 hours.
Spot Ether ETF Speculation
With the successful launch of the spot Bitcoin ETF in January, attention turned to another story about the cryptocurrency market. That is, the outlook for spot ether ETFs from well-known US companies including Fidelity, BlackRock, and Franklin Templeton. last few months.
The price of Ethereum has surpassed the price of Bitcoin in 2024 as speculation grows about the possible approval of such a product this year. This represents a year-to-date gain of 73% compared to Bitcoin’s 60%.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas recently said: suggested There is a 70% chance of approval by May 23rd. This is the final deadline for applications for Ark and 21Shares’ first-ever spot Ether ETFs filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
At the time, Standard Chartered shared Balchunas’ view, with the bank predicting that Ethereum could reach the $4,000 level if it mimics Bitcoin’s track record of spot ETF acceptances. However, investment bank TD Cowen previously said the SEC was unlikely to approve a spot ether ETF “any time soon,” while JPMorgan said there was a less than 50% chance a spot ether ETF would be approved by May.
Earlier this week, Jake Chervinsky, Variant Fund’s chief legal officer, added that the legal challenges and policy environment in Washington, D.C. make it more likely than people think that the SEC will reject a spot ether ETF by the May deadline.
While many in the cryptocurrency community have cited BlackRock’s record of only one ETF rejection in its history as a positive indicator of the approval of a spot ether ETF, Chervinsky disagreed. “‘BlackRock always wins’ is a lazy bull market,” said the former Combined Labs general counsel.
In January, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said the agency’s approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF was limited to a single cryptocurrency and “should not be construed beyond that.” Given Gensler’s position that cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin are securities, additional uncertainty surrounding the approval of a spot Ethereum ETF remains.
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