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The price of Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed $47,100 on Jan. 8 amidst expectations of spot Bitcoin ETF approvals over the coming days.

Bitcoin was priced at $47,162 at 7:15 p.m. UTC. At the time, its market cap is roughly $918 billion.

The latest high represents daily gains for Bitcoin and other top-ten crypto assets. Bitcoin (BTC) is up 6.2% over 24 hours, while Ethereum (ETH) is up 4.8% over the same period. Additionally, Cardano (ADA) is up 4.6%, Avalanche (AVAX) is up 2.6%, Solana (SOL) is up 3.8%, and XRP is up 2.0%. The entire cryptocurrency market is up 4.0% over a 24-hour period.

Bitcoins current value represents a 21-month high not seen since April 2022. In May 2022, shortly after that previous high, an extended market crash occurred following collapse of TerraUSD and various crypto lending services. The markets long-term price recovery began in January 2024 and has continued until today.

Though numerous factors affect Bitcoins price, optimism around the likely approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) may be one factor.

CNBC, notably, reported at 3:54p.m UTC that multiple ETFs are expected to be approved in the coming days based on two sources close to the matter. The news outlet said that the funds will likely be approved on Wednesday, Jan. 10 and that trading will likely begin on Thursday, Jan. 11, or Friday, Jan. 12.

Other positive news around ETFs has also emerged. Standard Chartered predicted that Bitcoin ETFs could bring $50 billion to $100 billion of inflows into the crypto market throughout 2024. VanEck bought $72.5 million of Bitcoin to seed its ETF, while Grayscale and other companies entered a fee war to offer competitive rates.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler warned about Bitcoin investments, implicitly hinting about new crypto products despite his negative tone.

Previous weeks have seen the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) meet with asset managers and accept amendments from those applicants, which are important steps toward product approvals.

Any of those events and countless others may have affected investor sentiment, driving up demand for Bitcoin and, in turn, its market value.

At the time of press, Bitcoin is ranked #1 by market cap and the BTC price is up 6.09% over the past 24 hours. BTC has a market capitalization of $919.75 billion with a 24-hour trading volume of $42.53 billion. Learn more about BTC

BTCUSD Chart by TradingView

At the time of press, the global cryptocurrency market is valued at at $1.73 trillion with a 24-hour volume of $87.67 billion. Bitcoin dominance is currently at 53.20%. Learn more

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BTC tops $47k as CNBC predicts Wednesday Bitcoin ETF approval - CryptoSlate

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Here's Why Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy Are Buying All the Bitcoin They Can Get Their Hands On  The Motley Fool

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Here's Why Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy Are Buying All the Bitcoin They Can Get Their Hands On - The Motley Fool

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Cathie Wood joins CNBC's 'Halftime Report' to discuss the growth rally in her ARKK ETF, where she expects Twilio to go from here, and more.

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Cathie Wood on ARKK ETF, bitcoin ETF approval, and more - CNBC

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BlackRock Expects Bitcoin ETF Approval Wave on Wednesday  DailyCoin

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BlackRock Expects Bitcoin ETF Approval Wave on Wednesday - DailyCoin

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A version of this story appeared in our The Guidance newsletter. Sign up here.

GM, Joanna here!

Bitcoin is getting boring.

As the crypto world breathlessly awaits the approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, Bloomberg reports that a startup of Citigroup alumni has launched a depositary receipt for Bitcoin.

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That might not sound very sexy, but bear with me it says volumes about where crypto is headed in 2024.

In short: the TradFi creep is real and its coming.

Lets get the technical details out of the way.

Depositary receipts give US investment companies exposure to foreign companies, but in a way that feels safe and familiar.

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How do they do that?

What does that have to do with Bitcoin?

The startup, Receipts Depositary Corporation, is planning to offer an instrument that looks like a depositary receipt but provides direct ownership of Bitcoin.

RDC said the underlying assets will be safeguarded at licensed custodian bank Anchorage Digital, and cleared through the DTC.

The depositary receipts dont go through the same Securities and Exchange Commission approvals process as ETFs do, as they are covered by a regulatory exemption.

They are limited, however, to institutional investor clients this is not a retail product.

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Why is a Bitcoin depositary receipt important?

If this all sounds a bit dry, thats the point. Institutional investors such as banks and pension funds like dry.

Wall Street has spent the past decade talking a big game about innovation, but really these firms are too heavily regulated to move fast into new asset classes.

While hedge funds trading their own money have a foothold in crypto, Bitcoin has remained too risky for, say, pension funds managing the retirement savings of teachers and firemen.

Volatility, regulatory uncertainty, cybersecurity concerns, and a lack of market structure that feels safe and familiar are all deterrents.

But pensions and endowments represent potentially huge inflows of money one of the reasons theres so much excitement about the prospect of ETFs.

The Bitcoin depositary receipts are an answer to the question: How do you get direct ownership without the hassle of taking physical possession of the asset?

Thats what David Easthope, a senior analyst who heads up the market structure and technology team at Coalition Greenwich, told me.

With these receipts, you dont have any of the hassle of counterparty risk or cybersecurity. You are not controlling the physical asset. You dont have to worry about your private key, your wallet, [or if you will] participate in staking if you offer a product for Ethereum, Easthope said.

Firms dont want the headache of selecting and onboarding a custodian to safeguard the asset, he added.

They just want to have 0.5% or 1% of the endowment or whatever to have access to Bitcoin, but without having to bring on a new technology vendor.

Whether depositary receipts or spot ETFs, for that matter are good solutions remains to be seen. Investors will vote with their dollars.

But RDCs product is one more sign that capital markets firms are laying claim to crypto.

Email me joanna@dlnews.com or Telegram @joannallama.

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Bitcoin gets boring and why that's a good thing for Wall Street - DLNews

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