| agent006140 | 08-29-2023 10:23 AM |
Gbtc
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies soared on Tuesday after crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments won a key court decision that likely clinches approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund—a long-awaited catalyst for digital assets.
The price of Bitcoin jumped 5% over the past 24 hours to around $27,500, having previously traded around $26,000, after a federal court ruled in favor of Grayscale in a case against the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The court said the SEC acted arbitrarily by denying Grayscale’s attempts to convert its Grayscale Investment Trust—which holds Bitcoin—into an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The regulator can appeal to the Supreme Court or deny Grayscale on other grounds than it did initially, but it makes a spot Bitcoin ETF look inevitable at this point.
The arrival of ETFs that hold Bitcoin, as opposed to derivatives like Bitcoin futures, has been heralded as a key catalyst for digital assets, especially since Blackrock (BLK) and other traditional financial stalwarts applied for their own versions of such funds in June.
It was a sea of green across digital assets in the wake of the decision, with cryptos firmly outpacing the stock market’s Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500.
Ether, the second-largest crypto, advanced 4% to $1,725. Smaller tokens or altcoins were more buoyant, with Cardano climbing 5% and Polygon popping 6%. Memecoins also moved higher, with Dogecoin up 2% and Shiba Inu jumping 3%.
Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com | 
