Bitcoin tops $60,000 and nears record high on growing US exchange-traded fund hopes

US approval for Bitcoin ETF expected to speed up the mainstream adoption of digital assets

Bitcoin slid about 8 per cent to $40,237 in early Asian trading on September 21, 2021, dropping to its lowest level since the beginning of August. Reuters

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, became the world's youngest crypto billionaire after Ether breached the $3,000 level in May this year. Bloomberg

Tether, also known as USTD, is considered a stablecoin as it was designed to always be worth $1. Unsplash

Cardano is growing in popularity with cryptocurrency investors after reaching a market cap of $77 billion in May this year. Unsplash

Binance Coin is one of the biggest cryptocurrencies in the world. Alamy

US technology company Ripple created the XRP cryptocurrency in 2012. Today, it is trading at about $0.94, according to Coinbase. Unsplash

Solana, a programmable blockchain cryptocurrency, hit a record $80.12 in August. Bloomberg

The USD Coin is a stablecoin with about $27 billion worth of coins in global circulation. Unsplash

The Polkadot cryptocurrency is built on a multi-blockchain network and has a market cap of about $28.8 billion. Alamy

Originally designed as a meme joke in 2013, Dogecoin today trades for about $0.21 and has a market capitalisation of about $27.6 billion. Getty Images

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, hit $60,000 for the first time in six months on Friday, nearing its record high, as traders grew confident that US regulators would approve the launch of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on its futures contracts.

Cryptocurrency investors have been waiting for approval of the first US ETF for Bitcoin, whose recent rally is being fuelled in part by anticipation of such a move, which is seen as speeding up the mainstream adoption of digital assets.

Bitcoin rose 4.5 per cent to its highest level since April 17, and was last at $59,290. It has risen by more than half since September 20 and closing in on its record high of $64,895 hit in April.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to allow the first US Bitcoin futures ETF to begin trading next week, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

"It is widely expected that Q4 will see significant progress around a Bitcoin ETF in the US," said Ben Caselin, head of research and strategy at Asia-based cryptocurrency exchange AAX.

Friday's moves were spurred, he said, by a tweet from the SEC's investor education office.

"ETFs open up a raft of avenues for people to gain exposure, and there will be a swift move to these structures," said Charles Hayter, chief executive of data company CryptoCompare, which tracks ETF products.

"It reduces the frictions for investors to gain exposure and gives traditional funds room to use the asset for diversification purposes."

Several fund managers, including the VanEck Bitcoin Trust, ProShares, Invesco, Valkyrie and Galaxy Digital Funds have applied to launch Bitcoin ETFs in the United States. Crypto ETFs have been launched this year in Canada and Europe.

"We have seen more institutional build-up, especially in the past few weeks, than we have at any time since the [Bitcoin price] crash back in April," said Noelle Acheson, head of market insights at Genesis Global Trading.

SEC chair Gary Gensler previously said the crypto market involves many tokens which may be unregistered securities and leaves prices open to manipulation and millions of investors vulnerable to risks.

The Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the matter, said that proposals by ProShares and Invesco are based on futures contracts and were filed under mutual fund rules that Mr Gensler has said provide "significant investor protections".

The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Bloomberg report.