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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) extended its winning streak into a third day on Wednesday, surging to the highest level seen since late April, as traditional finance (TradFi) giants boosted their bets on the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
The top coin jumped 8.2% to $30.07K at 2:01 p.m. ET, after reaching as high as $30.73K about an hour earlier. Also on the move, ethereum (ETH-USD) shot up 5% to $1.87K and solana (SOL-USD) advanced 3.9% to $17.
Crypto prices continued to buck the stock market’s downward trend in the days following BlackRock’s (NYSE:BLK) move to file an application to create what would be the first-ever spot bitcoin (BTC-USD) exchange-traded fund in the U.S. CoinMarketCap data showed that the global crypto market value soared 7.1% to $1.16T.
BLK’s latest BTC bet “is a testament to the public’s unwavering interest in this digital currency,” said Konstantin Shulga, CEO and Co-Founder of Finery Markets, a multi-dealer marketplace for crypto businesses. “It shows that people firmly believe that bitcoin has the potential to become a legal and widely accepted instrument in the traditional financial industry.”
“If the filing is approved, it will provide a convenient avenue for individuals and institutions to invest in bitcoin, without the need for maintaining crypto infrastructure for settlements and custody,” he added.
Greg Waisman, co-founder and chief operating officer at global payments infrastructure platform Mercuryo, contended in a statement that bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) dominance could get a big boost over the longer term, as an approved spot BTC ETF “will drive the inflow of new funds and may convince a broader range of investors to acknowledge the cryptocurrency as a global digital commodity.”
BlackRock’s (BLK) spot BTC ETF filing sparked a wave of new filings from fellow investment firms Invesco (NYSE:IVZ) and WisdomTree, despite a regulatory crackdown on the space.
Meantime, a barrage of crypto-exposed stocks caught bids, with the biggest gainer featuring Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ:ARBK) +20.7%, Sphere 3D (NASDAQ:ANY) +11.8%, CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK) +9.3%, Core Scientific (OTCPK:CORZQ) +10.9% and Hut 8 Mining (NASDAQ:HUT) +7.6%. Other notable gainers include MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), rising 5.9%, and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC:GBTC), up 5.8%.
