Prominent analytics firm IntoTheBlock says that traders are operating under the assumption that Ethereum (ETH) will be the next crypto asset to get a spot market exchange-traded fund (ETF).
In a new analysis, IntoTheBlock’s Lucas Outumuro says that Ethereum has significantly outperformed Bitcoin in the last few days following the “fake” approval of spot-based BTC ETFs.
On Tuesday, a bad actor compromised the X account of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and made a false post saying the regulator had approved a spot market Bitcoin ETF.
According to the firm’s head of research, Ethereum’s abrupt rise is a tell-tale sign that traders are already anticipating the approval of spot market Ethereum ETF applications.
“Ether has outperformed Bitcoin by over 10% since the initial fake approval of the spot ETF came out on Tuesday.
With Blackrock and several other entities having pending applications for Ethereum spot ETF applications, the market appears to be giving it high odds they will pass.”
According to Outumuro, the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs has opened the doors for the SEC to also green-light a spot Ethereum ETF.
“The SEC’s approval order further increases the odds of the ETH ETF by stating that ‘fraud or manipulation that impacts prices in spot Bitcoin markets would likely similarly impact CME Bitcoin futures prices.’
Since Ethereum already has a futures ETF, it appears that the SEC may follow the same logic as they did with ETF in approving it since both are subject to the same type of potential manipulation.”
Outumuro notes that traders are also accumulating crypto assets supporting ETH’s ecosystem.
“Additionally, the market has also favored higher beta ETH-related investments, with layer-2 tokens and liquid staking protocols recording gains of over 10% this week, and with extra catalysts fueling these higher.”
The IntoTheBlock executive ends his analysis by saying that traders are looking at the potential approval of ETH ETFs as the next big catalyst for Ethereum.
“Market speculators have already shifted their attention to ETH in anticipation of spot ETFs generating a similar effect on the second-largest crypto asset.”
At time of writing, Ethereum is worth $2,564, up about 13% since the start of the year.
Generated Image: Midjourney
