Bitcoin and Ether inched down during Monday afternoon trading in Hong Kong, while all other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization were mixed. XRP continued its rally after XRP issuer Ripple’s favorable ruling last week in its lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Investors were also upbeat after the SEC accepted BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications for review.
See related article: Weekly Market Wrap: Bitcoin breaches US$31,195 following Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETF application
Bitcoin, Ether slip but remain above key levels, XRP leads gains
Bitcoin was little changed during the Asia trading day, holding at US$30,321 as of 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong.
Ether inched down 0.15% during afternoon trading in Asia, to change hands at US$1,931, holding above US$1,900 since Thursday.
The XRP token was the day’s biggest gainer, rising 4.22% to US$0.7483. The token rallied 59.67% on the week after U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres ruled Thursday that Ripple Labs’ programmatic sales of its XRP cryptocurrency did not qualify as financial securities.
Adding to positive investor sentiment, the SEC has accepted asset manager BlackRock’s application for a spot Bitcoin ETF for review. This signals the SEC’s intent to seriously consider the ETF application.
“An approved ETF could be the catalyst that provides an efficient and regulated way for institutional investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin. Such approval could potentially bring significant inflows of institutional capital into the market, increasing liquidity and driving up prices,” Lucas Kiely, the chief investment officer of digital asset platform Yield App, told Forkast.
“It would signal a maturing and mainstream acceptance of Bitcoin, instilling confidence in both retail and institutional investors. It would remove some of the perceived barriers to entry, making it easier for individuals and institutions to participate in the market.”
The total crypto market capitalization over the past 24 hours rose 0.10% to US$1.21 trillion and market volume increased 3.97% to US$25.93 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.
