Bitcoin Price Hits $1,300 Prior to ETF Decision

Bitcoin price surpassed the $1,300 mark on major Bitcoin exchanges earlier today, which led to various speculations on the state of the Winklevoss twins’ Bitcoin ETF COIN’s approval.

Leading US-based Bitcoin exchanges such as Bitstamp and global Bitcoin exchange Bitfinex recorded $1,350 and $1,336 respectively at their peak.

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Over the past few weeks, Cointelegraph offered extensive coverage on the state of the COIN ETF. Analysts and traders noticed large fluctuations of Bitcoin price as discussions on the Winklevoss twins’ ETF progressed.

As analysts from CNBC and Bloomberg began to offer their optimistic views on the approval of the COIN Bitcoin ETF, Bitcoin price continued to demonstrate a rising trend, increasing from low $1,000’s to $1,200 in a matter of days.

Specifically, Bloomberg Intelligence Sr. ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas noted that the approval of the COIN ETF is likely considering the Security Exchange Commission’s long history of approving market-opening ETFs such as the ASHR. When the ASHR ETF was first introduced to the public by the SEC, the vast majority of US companies weren’t expecting it to be approved.

“The odds for and against are so evenly matched. You’ve got possible regulation, liquidity and security issues, but on the reasons for, ETFs have this long history of opening up new markets. A great example of an ETF that was approved by the SEC is ASHR. That was approved before any US companies had a quota,” said Balchunas.

Why recent Bitcoin price spike is highly anticipated

In the past 24 hours, Bitcoin price increased from $1,150 to $1,350, dropped back to $1,080 and recovered again to around $1,260 as of current. In fact, within 15 minutes, Bitcoin price surged from $1,200 to $1,350, which triggered speculations on insider trading in relation to Bitcoin ETF approval.

The market cap of Bitcoin is over $20 bln. For Bitcoin to record over 12 percent in price within 15 minutes of trading the market should have been bombarded with unexpected orders across major Bitcoin exchanges. Moreover, for the Bitcoin market to react abruptly at this scale within minutes, hundreds of millions of dollars must have been allocated in order to increase Bitcoin price.

Many traders and analysts are favoring the approval of the COIN ETF because of this spike in price. Most traders are under the impression that an insider released undisclosed information within the SEC and triggered high-profile traders to place their bet on the approval.

While these are merely speculations, MarketWatch reporter Ryan Vlastelica confirmed with the SEC that the decision will be released today.

The SEC has confirmed that a bitcoin ETF decision will be released today, despite chatter about it possibly coming Monday. Place your bets. — Ryan Vlastelica (@RyanVlastelica) March 10, 2017

Therefore, regardless of the decision, the SEC will release its final statement on the approval of the COIN ETF.