Bitcoin Hits $38,000 as Traders Wait for ETF Approval

The price of Bitcoin crossed the $38,000 mark in the early hours of Thursday (16), reaching a value not seen in almost 20 months. The rise of the digital currency was fueled by investor expectations with the approval of Bitcoin ETFs by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC.

With the price of Bitcoin crossing the $38,000 mark, traders expect the next resistance, at the $43,000 mark, to be broken next week.

However, if Bitcoin fails to break the USD 39,000 resistance, it is possible that it could fall into the USD 32,000 range in the coming days, with no strong resistance in between. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price is $37,705, up 5% in the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin ETFs

The US regulator has postponed the deadline for ETF applications from Brazil’s Hashdex and Grayscale to convert their ETF from Bitcoin futures contracts to spot. The deadline for these requests was November 17 and the regulator has extended the deadline, recent documents show.

Although the SEC has postponed a decision on approving the first U.S. Bitcoin ETF, market analysts expect it will approve exchange-traded funds by January. ETFs would make it easier for institutions and wealthy investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin.

Bloomberg Intelligence expects a series of ETFs to be approved in early January, noting that the move could trigger an unprecedented bull run.

Predictions that the US Central Bank will end interest rate hikes have also increased the prices of cryptocurrencies, which can be sensitive to changes in liquidity levels in financial markets.

Another interesting metric supporting Bitcoin’s new high is the asset’s idle supply. Based on data from BTCDirect, 70% of the bitcoin supply has not changed hands in a year. This reduces the volume of bitcoin in circulation and selling pressure on the asset, supporting a bullish thesis for the digital currency.