Bitcoin is back above $44,000 per coin after hitting that mark earlier in December for the first time since April 2022. The largest digital coin by market cap is now trading for just under $44,095.
The asset is up by 4% in 24 hours. In the past week, it has risen by more than 6%, according to CoinGecko.
Bitcoin has shot up in value this year as a number of reputable Wall Street firms have applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to release a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). An ETF is a popular investment vehicle that tracks the price of an underlying asset.
It's likely the SEC will now approve a Bitcoin ETF after saying no for a decade, analysts say. Traditional investors would be able to get exposure to cryptocurrency in a safe and regulated way if such a product does hit a stock exchange.
What is Bitcoin?
—Bitcoin started it all. It was the first cryptocurrency, and it launched an industry that now includes thousands. But who invented it, how does it work, and why is it so important? What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin (BTC) is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. Think of it as a digital token. You can't physically touch or hold Bitcoins, and all Bitcoin transactions are logged on a public, decentralized, immutable ledger. The first official purchase using Bitcoin was for pizza in May 2010. Two pizzas from Papa...
Yesterday, news dropped that the world's biggest fund manager, BlackRock, met with the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets to discuss its proposed spot Bitcoin ETF.
At the start of 2023, Bitcoin was trading for less than $17,000 per coin. It is still well below the November 2021 all-time high of $69,044 it touched during the bull run.
BlackRock, Nasdaq Meet SEC Again to Discuss Spot Bitcoin ETF
BlackRock and Nasdaq met the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)'s Division of Trading and Markets Tuesday to discuss the asset manager's bid to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF. According to a memo released by the SEC, the meeting included BlackRock's Head of Digital Assets, Robert Mitchnick, along with personnel from the asset manager's ETF team. Also participating were Nasdaq's VP and Chief Regulatory Officer Joseph Cusick, Head of U.S. Equities and Exchange-Traded Products Giang Bui and H...
Other cryptocurrencies also shot up on Bitcoin's rise today. Ethereum, the second-biggest digital asset, is up nearly 3% in the past day and is trading hands for $2,252.
Of the top 20 coins and tokens, Solana is the biggest gainer: it's up over 9% in the past day and is priced at $80.61. Solana hit a 2023 high Wednesday after starting the year at just under $10 per coin.
And Avalanche has also bolted up by the same amount in 24 hours. Both altcoins have attracted interest from big investors in November and December.
The entire crypto market is now sitting at $1.73 trillion—a nearly 4% 24-hour jump in value.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
