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Cryptocurrencies rose on Tuesday amid late-game optimism over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's decision on the Spot Ether ETF application, with the first filing expected this week.
Ether led the rally, rising 9% to $3,680.98, according to Coin Metrics. It soared 20% on Monday.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin rose 2% to trade at around $71,350, up 8% from the previous day, when it regained the $70,000 level.
Crypto stocks also jumped on the bandwagon: Coinbase and Microstrategy rose about 2% each in after-hours trading, while Robinhood added 3%. Several bitcoin mining stocks, including Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms, Iren (formerly Iris Energy) and CleanSpark, rose 3%.
Investors are reconsidering the SEC's chances of green-lighting Ether ETF applications following reports that the SEC has required potential ETF issuers and exchanges to update their documents. The previous consensus was that such a fund would likely not be approved.
“After all, ETH spiked as soon as rumors started circulating that the SEC might approve a spot ETH ETF this week,” said Bartosz Lipinski, CEO of Cube Exchange.
“But similar to the approval of the Spot Bitcoin ETF earlier this year, this feels to me like a ‘buy on the rumor, sell on the news’ situation, and up until Thursday this week, We expect at least a temporary decline after that,'' he added, “regardless of whether funding is approved.''
Final decisions on the applications by VanEck and Ark Invest are expected this Thursday and Friday, respectively.
BlackRock, Fidelity, Invesco, Grayscale and Bitwise Asset Management also have applications awaiting decisions this year.
