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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) hovered under the $47K mark in Tuesday morning trading ahead of a long-awaited decision from the Securities and Exchange Commission on whether to greenlight the U.S.’s first exchange-traded fund that invests directly into the coin.
After briefly topping $47K late on Monday, when would-be spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund issuers filed amended forms for their applications, the world’s largest token (BTC-USD) jumped 4.2% over the past 24 hours to $46.7K at 9:29 a.m. ET.
The SEC is widely expected to take action on several bitcoin (BTC-USD) ETF applications by Wednesday.
The regulator “will communicate its decision to 21Shares by January 10, and likely notify most, if not all the 12 other issuer applicants on the same day of approval,” Matteo Greco, research analyst at digital asset and fintech investment firm Fineqia International, wrote in a note. “This approach aims to prevent 21Shares from having a first-mover advantage over other issuers.”
With BTC already up over 170% from a year ago, a large portion of which can be attributed to speculation around the proposed ETFs, some have argued that an SEC approval could result in a “sell-the-news” scenario. As such, traders who bought the token ahead of the decision might be in for a bearish surprise.
Meanwhile, crypto-tied stocks traded in negative territory minutes after the opening bell, including: MicroStrategy (MSTR) -0.6%, Coinbase Global (COIN) -2%, Marathon Digital (MARA) -3.4%, Riot Platforms (RIOT) -1.8% and Bit Digital (BTBT) -4.5%.
