Bitcoin slides amid rumors of spot ETF rejection

The BTC price fell below 43,000 dollars while the crypto firm Matrixport estimates that the SEC will reject all ETF requests at cash on Bitcoin at January.

Around midday on Wednesday, the market’s leading crypto suddenly erased the gains it had made at the start of the year. The Bitcoin price slid nearly 10% to around $40,800 on several exchanges, before rebounding to around $42,700, still down 6%.

Buoyed by investors’ hopes that the US regulator SEC would approve a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in January, its price had yesterday reached a level not seen for almost 2 years at over $45,000.

The setback comes as the chief analyst at Matrixport, a major crypto financial services firm founded by Chinese tycoon Jihan Wu, estimates in a new report that the SEC will not validate any spot ETF files this month.

This goal could be achieved by the second quarter of 2024″, says Markus Thielen.

For Thielen, from a political point of view, there is no reason to approve a cash ETF that would legitimize Bitcoin as an “alternative store of value”.

The current leadership of the five voting commissioners critical to the SEC’s approval of the ETF is dominated by Democrats. SEC Chairman Gensler is not embracing crypto in the U.S., and it might even be a long shot to expect him to vote to approve spot ETFs on Bitcoin,” the report says.

Matrixport’s analysis contrasts with that of many market observers, who are betting on approval by January 10.

BTC 24-hour price – Tradingview

We are likely to see increased volatility in the short term as markets begin to measure risk across all asset classes, as we enter a year with question marks,” commented Fadi Aboualfa, Head of Research at Copper.

To keep abreast of Crypto and Web3 news, click here. Coins.fr on TwitterLinkedin, Google, Facebook and Telegram