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Falls to $67K as Rate Fears Offset Ether Spot ETF Approval By Investing.com
Investing.com – Prices fell on Friday, pulling back further from the highs reached earlier in the week, as concerns over longer-term high U.S. interest rates largely offset a key development in the approval of US of exchange-traded funds that directly track Ether.
While Bitcoin still showed some gains during the week, it was back in the $60,000 to $70,000 trading range seen more than two months ago. It also pared much of its weekly gains on Thursday and Friday.
Bitcoin fell 3.6% in the last 24 hours to $67,486.0 at 08:12 ET (12:12 GMT).
Ether Falls, Set for Stellar Week as SEC Approves Listing of Spot ETFs
The world’s No. 2 token fell 5.1% to $3,718.70 amid some profit-taking.
But the token was trading up 22% over the past seven days, driven primarily by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of requests from several major exchanges to list a spot Ether ETF.
SEC approval requests from Nasdaq, CBOE and NYSE to list ETFs that will directly track the price of Ether.
The move marked some progress toward the eventual approval of a spot ETF for trading, although the SEC will now have to get involved with requests from fund managers to list a spot ETF. Candidates include VanEck, ARK Investment Management and seven other issuers.
Rumors about SEC approval boosted Ether prices throughout the week, with the actual event generating fleeting gains in the token.
Crypto Price Today: US Rate Fears Quash All Optimism
But fears of higher interest rates for longer in the US were a key point of pressure on crypto markets, especially as aggressive signals from the Federal Reserve showed growing anxiety among policymakers about sticky inflation.
Several Fed officials said inflation would likely take longer to reach the central bank’s 2% annual target, while minutes from the bank’s late April meeting showed some policymakers were even open to raising interest rates further.
This has caused traders to largely eliminate expectations of any rate cuts this year. Traders were seen pricing in an almost equal probability of a rate cut or hold in September, at around 46%, according to .
High fees for longer fees bode poorly for crypto, as the sector generally thrives in low-fee, high-liquidity markets. Most token prices have fallen due to this idea, with a rally in the dollar also putting pressure on markets.
fell 4.7% while rising 0.9%. Meme tokens fell 5.7% and 3.7% respectively.
Ether approvals pave the way for more crypto ETFs, likely in 2025, analyst says
The approval of spot ether ETFs likely opens the door for the next chapter of crypto ETFs, analysts at Standard Chartered (OTC:) said.
“For other currency markets, we will also await their eventual ETF status, although this is likely a 2025 rather than 2024 story,” Standard Chartered told The Block.
The bank’s analysts believe the green light for ether ETFs points to a notable shift in US regulators’ stance. Specifically, it suggests that ETH is not classified as a security by the SEC, thus implying that other coins similar to ETH, which were previously under scrutiny in cases such as the 2023 XRP case, may also not be considered securities.
“In several cases, the core technology is so similar to ETH that it would be difficult for the SEC to claim these were securities, given ETH’s position,” analysts said. “The crypto industry now appears to have political support from both sides of the aisle.”
They see the latest crypto support in the US as a “true watershed moment.” As such, analysts think the next question is not if, but when, the market will witness more regulatory changes.