Altcoins steal limelight

A witchy cauldron of ETF hype and speculation has put a spell on crypto these past few days and nights. Bitcoin's sharp spike Monday into Tuesday unleashed a kind of hysteria reminiscent of Salem, Massachusetts circa the early 1690s. And amidst the manic upswing, a coven of green-faced altcoins grabbed a hold of their broomsticks and took off, shrieking.

Mina Protocol's MINA, in a downright frightening move, more than doubled to $0.90 in one day, this after snagging a listing on a large South Korean exchange; MINA’s wicked turn arrived only a fortnight removed from hitting its all-time low of $0.35, per CoinGecko.

Meanwhile, decentralized oracle network Chainlink's LINK notched a 7% gain in the past 24 hours. It surpassed the $11 mark after only recently drifting near $7. LINK's weekly return has reached north of 50%.

Similar seven-day gains have been notched by Injective's INJ and meme coin PEPE.

By contrast, awakened-giant BTC has gained 20% since last Wednesday.

A palpable sense that BTC ETFs loom around the bend sent the biggest crypto rocketing above $35,000 earlier this week. The past 24 hours saw BTC establish a foothold in the region of $34,000. Although BlackRock product preparation activities remain under a microscope, the fervor surrounding them has mostly subsided.

BTC has declined by 0.7% in 24 hours to the edge of $34,350. That mark held as of 8:25 a.m. (EST). Total crypto market capitalization stood at $1.31 trillion after a dip of 0.6% in 24 hours – and possibly is a reflection of the iShares' IBTC ticker being mysteriously removed from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation's (DTCC) website.

Here’s a loaded question: Could institutional adoption push crypto into perpetual spring?

“What we are potentially seeing is a permanent thawing of crypto winters,” said Anchorage Digital's Diogo Monica (CoinDesk).

In a glass-most-of-the-way-filled research note put out on Tuesday, Galaxy Digital said spot BTC ETFs likely could attract at least $14 billion of inflows in their first year.

Meanwhile, a Grayscale spokesperson confirms the company hopes to “work constructively” with the SEC on its efforts to convert closed-end Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) – which is currently the industry's largest crypto investment vehicle with nearly $17 billion in assets – into a spot BTC ETF that would be open-ended, trade publicly and be easily accessible to high-net-worth advisory firms.

“GBTC is operationally ready, and we intend to move as expeditiously as possible,” the Grayscale spokesperson said.

Regulatory decision-makers, fearing BTC market structure inadequacies opening the door to shenanigans, have slow-rolled product launch bids which have been either rejected or left undecided and subject to delays. The SEC last year denied Grayscale's ETF conversion request. So, Grayscale sued the agency. And won the case. The SEC isn't appealing.

Vivian Fang, a finance professor at Indiana University, said she sees various signs that the SEC is now “warming up” to the idea of approving a spot BTC ETF.

Speaking to Forkast, Fang cited recent comments from the regulator pertaining to the BTC market manipulation concerns having been mitigated by evidence of the market's sufficient enormity.

Regulators have shown themselves unwilling to budge on certain jurisdictional battles impacting numerous altcoins, including XRP, Solana and Cardano, deemed securities unlawfully issued by the likes of Binance and Coinbase. Nevertheless, Fang thinks that the SEC, after taking a tough stance on exchanges, is ready to soften up. “I view a spot Bitcoin ETF as a bone that the SEC is willing to throw to the industry," Fang said.