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.
