Solana, Avalanche Soar as Ethereum Price Tops $3,500

By Mat Di Salvo

Bitcoin and Ethereum are up big today—with the latter soaring on rumors that an ETH-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) could soon hit the U.S. market.

The price of Bitcoin touched $70,000, triggering a flood of liquidations, while ETH is trading over $3,500 as of writing. But the top two coins by market cap aren't the only ones seeing big gains. The entire crypto market is up, with Solana and Avalanche the top gainers.

Solana, the fifth biggest coin by market cap, is up over 8% in the past day and is now trading hands for $184.17, according to CoinGecko.

The coin isn't as close to breaking records like Bitcoin is, though—it still has to rise in value by another 29% to hit its 2021 all-time high of $259.

Elsewhere, Avalanche is also riding high: of the top 20 coins and tokens, it's doing the best, having shot up by nearly 9% in 24 hours. It is now priced at $38.24.

The coin, which runs on a network used by developers to build decentralized apps, is the 12th biggest digital asset by market cap and last year made headlines when J.P. Morgan announced that it had used its blockchain to tokenize investment portfolios.

Further down the list of top cryptocurrencies by market cap, price surges have also hit Uniswap (UNI), Pepe, and Lido DAO (LDO) with 24-hour gains of over 18%, 20%, and 21%, respectively.

Ethereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency, is currently up 14% in the past day, coming in priced at $3,511. The asset shot up on news that Wall Street's biggest regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, could be close to approving a spot ETH ETF.

Such an investment vehicle would give people exposure to the second biggest digital currency by market cap via shares that trade on a traditional stock exchange.

The SEC approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs in January but has been coy on the issue of approving an ETH equivalent.

A long-list of big Wall Street firms have filed paperwork to release a spot ETH ETF, including BlackRock, Grayscale, and VanEck. Up until the latest rumors, the prospects of approval seemed dim.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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