On Friday 15, October, Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed $60,000 for the first time since April, following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcement of the Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF), triggering a price spike throughout the whole cryptocurrency market.
The move was initially fueled by rumors which had circulated prior to the initial announcement that the SEC would approve the first Bitcoin ETF early next week.
Interestingly, on April 14, 2021, when BTC reached its all-time high, the crypto market cap was $2,194 trillion, whereas now it is $2,505 trillion, with many experts still predicting that Bitcoin will record a new all-time high.
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On Saturday morning, the global cryptocurrency market was trading in the green; at the time of writing, the market’s total worth is up 4.14% from the previous day, meaning that its cap is more than the world’s most valuable company Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).
Additionally, the total volume of the crypto market in the last 24 hours was $116.23 billion, a 0.72% rise. At the same time, the 24-hour volume of DeFi is $14.97 billion, accounting for 12.88% of the whole crypto market volume, while the combined volume of all stable currencies is $91.19 billion, representing 78.46%.
ETF an “arbitrage opportunity for hedge funds”
Nevertheless, economist, investment strategist, and former hedge fund manager Raoul Pal considers issuing the BTC futures ETF as a positive move, but he admits it essentially provides huge arbitrage opportunities for hedge funds, as these contracts are likely to be traded at a big premium during bull phases, and they will be able to profit from those returns.
He stated:
“This is the old financial market trick – you now have to add multiple new intermediaries who all make profits – the ETF provider, clearing house, futures broker, administrator, auditor, law firm, CME and hedge fund arbs.
Wall street gets richer. Retail investors lose. Again.”
BTC price rally
Despite Pal’s concerns, as a result of another overnight surge thanks to the news, the price of Bitcoin had reached a new six-month high of over $62,000, putting it briefly less than $2,000 away from reaching an all-time high; in fact, Bitcoin has now risen by roughly 44% since the beginning of October.
Presently, the flagship digital asset is trading hands at $61,400, up 3.49% in the last 24 hours and 11.84% over the previous seven days.
Notably, some experts are predicting a record-breaking finish to the year, with one price prediction model predicting that Bitcoin would reach a new all-time high by November, with the same model forecasting that BTC will reach six digits by the end of 2021.
Generally, before a possible price discovery period, all-time highs of over $65,000 will serve as the next resistance level. However, even if the Bitcoin price has seen a ferocious rally in recent weeks, the BTC balance on exchanges has remained at its lowest levels in nine months, suggesting that investors are keeping the digital asset in their wallets rather than preparing to sell.
Finally, over the past week, the prices of other major cryptocurrencies have also experienced significant rises, with Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), and Polkadot (DOT) all-seeing price increases of between 10% or more.
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