Bitcoin Tops $67,000 as Ethereum ETFs Win Final Approvals to Begin Trading

Bitcoin is continuing its climb past $67,000 after President Biden dropped out of the race and the Ethereum ETFs prepare for launch.

This week: Bitcoin 2024 hosts the world’s largest Bitcoin conference in Nashville, eight different issuers of Ethereum ETFs get out of the gate, and Solana catches a bid putting a $500 price target back into the mix.

Listen to Coinage discuss these stories and more in our usual Live News Recap with Bloomberg’s James Seyffart on what to expect when the ETH ETFs begin trading above.

ETH ETFs Are Finally Here

After their surprise approval in May, Ethereum ETFs are finally poised to begin trading Tuesday morning. Estimates are a bit all over the place for how much money might pour into these versus the $15 billion Bitcoin ETFs were able to attract in their first 5 months of trading, but many experts say the second largest cryptocurrency garnering about 20% of that isn’t too far off.

Many of the same players are in the mix this time, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, and Bitwise. Bitwise’s CIO Matt Hougan told Coinage last week that ETH ETFs are unlikely to cannibalize the momentum Bitcoin ETFs already have and will likely do more to bring in additional funds.

Bloomberg’s James Seyffart joined Coinage to share that large wealth advisor players like Morgan Stanley and UBS are getting closer to committing significant amounts of their clients’ portfolios to digital assets.

“They have like trillions of dollars in their wealth management platforms and they cannot buy these things yet,” he said. “That's meaningful assets that will come to these products. So I don't know what that's going to look like, but that is probably more money that's coming down the line.”

JPMorgan Offers Bear Case

JPMorgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou is offering the other side of the token in a new report this week that claims any run higher for Bitcoin is to be short lived.

He highlights that Bitcoin is already trading above where mining costs are, and where the volatility-adjusted comparable to gold would have it trading at just $53,000.

Per The Block, the difference between bitcoin’s price and JPMorgan’s volatility-adjusted comparison to gold “points to mean reversion around the zero line, thus constraining any upside potential for bitcoin prices over the longer term,” Panigirtzoglou wrote.

Solana to $500?

With Ethereum ETFs now joining the Bitcoin bunch, Solana has been catching a boost on hopes that it would be next to be approved. Solana is up more than 15% this week as people wonder how close the two Solana ETF applications from VanEck and 21Shares might be to getting approved.

However, as we learned in our interview with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce last week — the process for Solana getting approved is far from clear cut. Seyffart agrees it’s unlikely to see until maybe early 2025.

Nonetheless, the risk/reward of Solana here does look attractive if the regulatory winds keep blowing. That reminded us of Sean Farrell’s $500 price target for this year. Seemed crazy when Solana was trading under $90 at the beginning of the year. Certainly looks less crazy now.

Other Web3 Headlines:

• The Digital Chamber presses Kamala Harris to take a positive approach to crypto ahead of elections

• Swan to cancel public listing and shutter Bitcoin mining unit following layoffs

• Crypto throws Celsius defendants potential lifeline in clawback lawsuits, lawyer says

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