Hopes surrounding a potential U.S. Bitcoin ETF filing by investment giant BlackRock spurred a slight change in market movements early on Friday, fueling a bullish outlook among some traders, said Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks. BlackRock’s increasing engagement shows Bitcoin continues to be an asset of interest for some of the world’s largest financial institutions.
The news of BlackRock’s filing caused Bitcoin to quickly regain the $25,500 level early Friday, erasing losses from the past two days when it fell to as low as $24,860. This also provided some respite to major tokens such as Polygon Network’s MATIC and Cardano’s ADA, which jumped nominally to ease some losses from a two-day slide. Dogecoin (DOGE) led gains among major tokens with a 4% move in the past 24 hours, with litecoin (LTC) gaining 3.3%.
The market strength of Bitcoin impacted shorts – or bets against – the asset with BTC-tracked futures seeing over $16 million in short liquidations in the past 24 hours. This figure was lesser-than-usual due to large declines in the past week, causing some traders to risk lesser capital than usual.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has previously rejected other attempts by fund managers at listing a spot bitcoin ETF, including those from Grayscale, VanEck, and WisdomTree. However, the stature of BlackRock could make it difficult for the SEC to reject this application – which some say could fuel an outsized bitcoin rally if approved.