According to analytics firm Santiment, large-scale cryptocurrency investors, known as “whales,” were able to purchase substantial amounts of Bitcoin (BTC) right before Grayscale’s legal victory over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Bitcoin’s price trajectory
Santiment speculates that some of these whale and shark addresses may have had prior knowledge of the legal win, as wallets holding between 10-10,000 BTC accumulated a total of $388.3 million worth of Bitcoin the day before the announcement.
Following the Grayscale victory, Bitcoin’s price increased from approximately $25,964 to a high of $27,975, representing an increase of over 7.7%. However, the cryptocurrency has since experienced a slight drop in value and is currently trading at around $27,275.
Recently, a federal judge has commanded that the SEC reexamine Grayscale’s request to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Grayscale filed a lawsuit against the SEC in June 2022, claiming that the regulatory agency’s rejection of their ETF application was discriminatory.
The judge has instructed the SEC to reconsider the company’s application to ensure that their decision-making process is fair and consistent.
According to Santiment, the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) cryptocurrency, which is an old-school BTC hard fork altcoin, saw a significant increase in value after the Grayscale news.
BCH’s price jumped from approximately $190 on Tuesday morning to a high of $225.29 later that day, an increase of more than 18.5%.
However, the 18th-ranked crypto asset by market capitalization has since lost some of those gains and is currently trading at $214.47 at the time of writing.
BTC ETF could launch in 2023
According to analysts at Bloomberg, it is highly likely that there will be a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) available by the end of this year, and certainly by 2024.
Experts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas estimate that there is a 75% chance that a BTC ETF will launch on the spot market by the end of 2023, and a 95% chance by the end of next year.
These odds have increased significantly following Grayscale’s recent legal victory against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The federal court ruled that the SEC must reconsider its rejection of Grayscale’s application to launch a BTC ETF in order to avoid being arbitrary and capricious.
