On Monday night, Bitcoin and various cryptocurrencies, along with related stocks like Coinbase Global (COIN), Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), Riot Platforms (RIOT), and Microstrategy (MSTR), experienced a significant surge. This rally followed a decision by a U.S. appeals court, instructing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to review Grayscale’s application for a spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF).
The court’s decision on Monday followed its late August ruling in favor of Grayscale. The SEC did not file an appeal within the 45-day window, leading to the anticipated decision on Monday.
It’s worth noting that while the SEC could still potentially reject Grayscale’s application for a spot Bitcoin ETF, doing so would require them to present a new rationale for their decision.
Several other entities have also submitted applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs.
In response to these developments, the price of Bitcoin surged to $35,000 on Monday night, representing a 16% increase in a 24-hour period. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), which tracks Bitcoin futures, saw a 5.3% jump in late trading following a 6.1% surge during Monday’s session. Ethereum, another major cryptocurrency, was trading above $1,750.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase experienced a 5.5% increase in late trading, while COIN stock rose by 3.4% to $77.21 during Monday’s session.
Among Bitcoin mining-related stocks, MARA and RIOT saw significant late-night gains of approximately 9%, building on their 12.8% and 9% surges from Monday. Microstrategy, a prominent Bitcoin purchaser, gained 7%, furthering its 8.5% increase from Monday.
The SEC also decided to drop its lawsuit against two Ripple executives that oversaw $1.5 billion in sales of the XRP token, the WSJ reported. CEO Brad Glaringhouse and co-founder Chris Larsen were charged with illegally selling securities and decided to take on the SEC in court instead of settle.
The SEC has two outstanding lawsuits against crypto exchanges Coinbase and Binance.
Elsewhere, bitcoin surged above $29,000 late Thursday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hinted at pausing interest rate hikes. Bitcoin and various
The latest earnings report from Tesla (TSLA) made no mention of bitcoin, implying Elon Musk’s electric car company did not buy or sell the digital asset during the quarter and still holds 9,720 bitcoin on its balance sheet.