Bitcoin climbed to a new high Tuesday due to the growing excitement over the potential introduction of a Bitcoin ETF. This momentum was fueled by the amended prospectus filed by BlackRock to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the discovery that the asset management firm had already seeded its ETF.
Bitcoin traded at $44408.67 around 6:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, recording a nearly 2% gain in a span of a few hours from its previous price of $43546.45.
The spike in the value of the world's first-ever and oldest crypto asset came on the heels of the latest filing made by the New York-based asset management giant with the SEC concerning its spot Bitcoin ETF application.
Industry experts and ETF analysts scrutinized the amended prospectus and discovered that BlackRock had seeded its ETF on Oct. 27. It was the same month when the crypto community found the Bitcoin ETF ticker of the firm listed on the website of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC).
The seeded amount was $100,000, which according to Bloomberg Intelligence EF analyst Eric Balchunas, was just a "small amount." He said it represented the "bare minimum norm for an ETF" and was probably done as an "operational" requirement.
Looks like they did seed the ETF back in October like we thought, altho small amount $100k. pic.twitter.com/RdkM0BPTYA
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) December 5, 2023
"The Seed Capital Investor agreed to purchase $100,000 in Shares on Oct. 27, 2023, and on Oct. 27, 2023, took delivery of 4,000 Shares at a per-Share price of $25.00 (the 'Seed Shares')," a section in the filing read.
The ETF analyst also suggested that BlackRock might secure more early assets under management (AUM) or volume closer to the launch to project success initially.
While the amended Bitcoin ETF prospectus of BlackRock does not reveal any timeline suggesting its official launch, for the crypto community, the steps the asset management firm took, especially seeding the ETF, is a significant development especially since the SEC has, in the past, rejected multiple spot Bitcoin applications.
Bitcoin was trading in the green zone at $44,247.28 as of 6:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday with a 24-hour trading volume up by 20.22% at $39,404,912,358.
Bitcoin's price action represented a 6.08% spike in the past 24 hours and a 15.4% gain over the last seven days.
Data from CoinMarketCap showed that BTC's circulating supply stands at 19,562,400 BTC with its value continuously climbing by 6.01% at a $865,161,565,271 market cap.
