Bitcoin price remains steady as ETP holdings grow and spot Ether ETFs inch closer
DATA from CryptoCompare shows that the price of Bitcoin moved sideways throughout the past week, rising just 0.7% to now trade around the $69,000 mark after seeing its price drop from a $72,000 high last month.
Ethereum’s Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, saw a slight drop over the week from around $3,900 to $3,800 at the time of writing, while maintaining the value of a surge that occurred after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cleared the path for the trading of spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Headlines in the cryptocurrency space this week partly focused on the potential launch of these spot Ether ETFs, with analysts at JPMorgan predicting that demand for these funds is set to be significantly lower when compared to their Bitcoin counterparts and expecting them to attract between $3 billion and $6 billion of inflows this year, depending on whether staking is permitted.
The analysts, led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, pointed out spot Bitcoin ETFs had a “first mover advantage,” which they believe may have already helped satiate institutional appetite for cryptocurrency exposure. They also pointed out Bitcoin’s halving event was a catalyst boosting demand for these funds, with no such event being on the horizon for Ether.
Notably this past week saw the launch of the first leveraged Ether ETF in the United States, the Volatility Shares 2x Ether ETF (ETHU), which is set to start trading on June 4 after securing approval from the SEC.
The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock has, over the week, amended its -1 form for its proposed spot Ether ETF, and revealed a “Seed Capital Investor” affiliate with the firm purchased the initial shares for the fund at $25 per share, for a total of $10 million.
Amid the excitement surrounding the potential launch of spot Ether ETFs in the United States, the total market capitalization of the stablecoin sector reached its highest level since April 2022, according to CCData’s latest Stablecoins & CBDCs report.
The report notes there was a 0.63% rise in the market capitalization of the sector from the beginning of the month to $161 billion, although the dominance of the sector dropped to 6.09% from 7% in March over rising cryptocurrency prices.
Bitcoin ETPs hit one million BTC milestone
Over the week, Bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) have seen their total Bitcoin holdings surpass the 1 million mark, with spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States contributing over 855,000 of the total BTC.
Their figure, when combined with 21 Bitcoin ETPs from countries including Brazil, Canada, and Germany, leads to a total of over 1 million BTC worth over $69 billion. The figure comes shortly after BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust became the world’s largest Bitcoin fund after surpassing Grayscale’s GBTC.
The figure was partly bolstered by BlackRock’s income and bond-focused funds, which added BTC exposure through the firm’s own spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund IBIT. The Strategic Income Opportunities Fund (BSIIX) acquired $3.56 million of IBIT shares, while the Strategic Global Bond Fund (MAWIX) bought $485,000, with the figures representing a tiny fraction of these funds’ total portfolios.
The price of Bitcoin last week managed to grow even as wallets belonging to the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox sprung back to life, moving a total of $9.3 billion in the cryptocurrency to new wallets.
The movements raised concerns of a potential sell-off from the creditors of the exchange, which are set to receive that $9 billion hoard that the Mt. Gox estate has held since the exchange’s bankruptcy back in 2014.
US Presidential candidate Donald Trump vows to support crypto
On his social media platform 'Truth Social', former US President Donald Trump voiced robust support for the cryptocurrency industry, and assured his followers that under his leadership the sector would flourish.
Trump accused President Joe Biden’s administration of attempting to stifle the industry, and later at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington DC, Trump pledged to safeguard the future of crypto and Bitcoin in the US. He said he would oppose a central bank digital currency and support the right to self-custody of digital assets.
Earlier this week, Trump’s campaign unveiled a fundraising page allowing cryptocurrency donations through the Coinbase Commerce platform, in an initiative that represents the first instance of a major party presidential nominee accepting crypto donations.
Over the week the cryptocurrency industry also saw the Gemini Exchange reveal its Earn users recovered $2.18 billion worth of digital assets, in a recovery that represents 97% of the funds owed to users and a $1 billion increase from the initial amount owed when withdrawals were halted.
Francisco Memoria is a content creator at CryptoCompare who’s in love with technology and focuses on helping people see the value digital currencies have. His work has been published in numerous reputable industry publications. Francisco holds various cryptocurrencies.
