Proactive Investors - Bitcoin (BTC) has entered a corrective phase after chalking up substantial gains in the first week of December.
The BTC/USDT pair closed 0.7% lower on Wednesday before dropping another 1.3% in early Thursday trades, bringing the benchmark cryptoasset to $43,196 at the time of writing.
Hopes are still high that bitcoin’s stellar recent performance will continue through the festive season as the market weighs up the possibility of a classic Santa rally.
The news cycle remains preoccupied with the hype surrounding spot-bitcoin exchange-traded funds, with US regulators poised to grant permission for bitcoin to be traded on the US stock exchanges for the first time ever.
Sources told Reuters on Thursday that US bitcoin ETF issuer talks with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have “advanced to key details”.
Bitcoin is up over 14% in the past seven days– Source: tradingview.com
ETF speculation has fuelled exceptional performance in the cryptocurrency markets in 2023.
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the largest bitcoin investment vehicle on the market, has rallied in conjunction with the ETF hype, with the trust’s long-term discount narrowing from nearly 50% earlier this year to just 11% today.
Allowing the various ETF application from Grayscale, not to mention BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), Fidelity and other major institutions, would be a likely boost to bitcoin’s overall performance.
Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, fell back even further back bitcoin on Wednesday, dipping over 2.6% against the US dollar, though Thursday trades have been more bullish.
At the time of writing, the ETH/USDT pair was swapping for $2,250.
Avalanche (AVAX) has emerged as the top altcoin mover in the December, rallying 27% from the start of the month.
Cardano (ADA) and Dogecoinm (DOGE) follow with 16% added to their market value, while Ripple (XRP), Solana (SOL) have kept their gains to the mid single digits.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at $1.58 trillion, with bitcoin dominance nearing 55%.
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