The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, Bitcoin (BTC), rose to levels not seen since May 2022 on Friday, the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday, amid calm trading in traditional markets, CoinDesk reported.

The price of the cryptocurrency dropped to levels around $37,800 after momentarily touching $38,000 earlier on Friday morning. Now that it has remained over the $38,000 barrier for a few hours, Bitcoin looks like it is trying to move higher.

The uptick in price comes as investors are expecting a possible approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

“With the BTC ETF lurking around the corner – which may be Jan .11 for the 14b1 consent (not s1 approval) there will be a new layer of volatility to the market,” Laurent Kssis was quoted as saying by CoinDesk.

“Due to the ease of trade and cost-effectiveness, a bitcoin ETF will attract more turnover in volumes from institutional investors currently not seen on crypto exchanges as they are not allowed to execute on these non-regulated exchanges by their compliance depts,” explained Kssis.

Kssis predicts that bitcoin could rally to $40,000 over the weekend.

“When approved, the volatility of BTC will be significant during these periods which create additional risks for investors but as well opportunities for those arbitraging. Would not be surprised if we see 40K being broken this weekend,” Kssis said.

Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market value, also gained over 3% on Friday.

MATIC has witnessed a notable price resurgence, surging from $0.503 to a high of $0.927 in the past month—an impressive 84% increase, ranking it among the top gainers on CoinMarketCap.

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IntoTheBlock reports a significant uptick in institutional and whale demand across the crypto sector. Notably, Polygon’s scaling solution experienced a 3,800% surge in large transactions (over $100,000) last month, contributing significantly to MATIC’s climb above $0.90 for the first time since May.

With a market cap of $8.2 billion, MATIC now holds the 13th position among cryptocurrencies. Despite this bullish trend, investors should exercise caution, considering the proximity to the July 13 wick levels, potentially indicating a formation of a double-top pattern on the daily chart, a signal of a possible trend reversal.

After the Federal Reserve surprised markets by sounding less hawkish than anticipated, the price of bitcoin surged on Thursday. Other cryptocurrencies also saw gains as the dollar declined and traders bet against any more interest rate hikes.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capital rose nearly 4% to $35,808, hitting its highest level since May 2022. World no. 2 crypto ethereum rose 3% to $1,866.19- a near three-month high.

The crypto market was largely encouraged by a weaker dollar and sinking yields, after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady on Wednesday, as widely expected. The dollar index slid over 0.5% in Asian trade on Thursday.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell struck a seemingly less hawkish tone on future rate hikes. While he still left the door open for one more rate hike this year, Powell also acknowledged that monetary conditions had tightened substantially in recent months. Markets took this as a signal that the Fed may not hike rates any further, and could potentially begin cutting rates by mid-2024.

This notion saw traders pivot out of the dollar and into risk-driven assets, benefiting cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin crossed the $35,000 mark for the first time since May 2022. A series of high-profile bankruptcies in the crypto market- including Terra, Three Arrows Capital and most notably FTX, had triggered deep declines in crypto prices over the past year. The world’s largest crypto token had sunk to as low as $15,000 in late-2022.

But the token has been on a tear in recent weeks, benefiting greatly from speculation that an exchange-traded fund that directly tracks the price of bitcoin will soon be approved in U.S. markets.

Applications from Grayscale, Ark Ventures, and most notably- world no.1 asset manager BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK), are under consideration by the Securities and Exchange Commission.