Bitcoin (BTC) stamped out Tuesday’s losses with a 1.5% gain on the spot markets this Wednesday morning, bringing the BTCUSDT pair above $42,900.
The bulls are eyeing up a rally above $43,000, which could be supported by the news that BlackRock Inc (NYSE:NYSE:BLK) just met up with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the second time this month to discuss its iShares Bitcoin Trust application.
BlackRock is petitioning to get its bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approved for a Nasdaq listing, a move that many see as a major bitcoin price catalyst in 2024.
Hopes are high that approval of BlackRock’s spot-bitcoin ETF will be made in tandem with similar applications from the likes of Fidelity, VanEck, Grayscale and Ark Invest.
Though the approvals are not expected until the new year (with a small chance of them not happening at all), the hype has set the crypto markets on fire in recent months.
Bitcoin’s performance remains strong as the year comes to a close, though the prospects of further gains in a so-called ‘Santa rally’ have dimmed somewhat.
Year-to-date bitcoin gains stand at more than 150% – Source: tradingview.com
While Ethereum (ETH) closed a bearish Tuesday session nearly 2% lower, early Wednesday trades have been buoyant, with the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency recovering 1.5% against the US dollar.
At the time of writing, the ETH/USDT pair was swapping for $2,208.
In the broader altcoin space, Binance’s BNB token shot up nearly 5% overnight, while Avalanche (AVAX) and Toncoin (TON) penned low-single-digit gains.
On the downside, Solana (SOL), Ripple (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Polkadot (DOT) chalked up red candlesticks.
Global cryptocurrency market cap dipped 50 basis points overnight to $1.61 trillion, with bitcoin dominance remaining above 53.5%.
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