Bitcoin price spikes $800 on claims SEC is engaging with exchanges over spot ETFs

Quick Take

  • The price of bitcoin spiked $800 following a tweet by Bloomberg ETF specialist Eric Balchunas.
  • Balchunas claimed that the SEC has been engaging with exchanges in relation to numerous spot bitcoin ETF filings. 

The price of bitcoin spiked by $800 immediately following a report that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been interacting with exchanges in relation to numerous spot bitcoin ETF applications. 

"Hearing chatter SEC’s Trading & Markets engaged with exchanges this week on spot bitcoin ETF 19b-4s, is advising them they'd like the ETFs to do cash creates (vs in-kind), and has asked them to get in amendments in next couple weeks," wrote Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst for Bloomberg, on the social media platform X. "This isn't unexpected but good sign nonetheless."

Balchunas noted that cash creates make sense because they reduce limitations on broker dealers. He said that a few bitcoin ETF applications had planned this already while the remainder had chosen to go for in-kind.

"Anyway, this doesn’t change our 90% odds up or down but is good sign the process marching and SEC has a path [forward] in the plumbing that they are comfortable with," he added.

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The price of bitcoin surged from roughly $36,000 to $36,800 in just minutes following the post before settling down, according to The Block's Price Page. 

Price of bitcoin. Image: The Block's Price Page

"Nothing groundbreaking. Nothing changes. But shows progress is still happening and things moving forward," noted fellow Bloomberg Intelligence ETF Research Analyst James Seyffart on X


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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