Bitcoin Falls After Brief Spike As BlackRock Shoots Down Report Of Spot Bitcoin ETF Approval

Updated: 16 October 2023

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Bitcoin spiked to more than $30,000 on incorrect reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had approved a spot Bitcoin ETF, then dropped when fund manager BlackRock confirmed the application was still under review.

Bitcoin had jumped as much as 10% after the reports but was trading at $28,055 at 11:25am ET, still up about 4.3% in the last 24 hours.

Multiple media outlets quickly reported that BlackRock had denied that its BlackRock iShares Spot Bitcoin ETF was approved, as CoinTelegraph had tweeted.

“The iShares Bitcoin ETP application is still under review by the SEC,” BlackRock told Reuters, using the acronym for exchange-traded product.

We apologize for a tweet that led to the dissemination of inaccurate information regarding the Blackrock Bitcoin ETF.

An internal investigation is currently underway. We are committed to transparency and will share the findings of the investigation with the public once it is…

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) October 16, 2023

CoinTelegraph’s tweet that the ETF was approved helped send markets into a frenzy. It subsequently amended its tweet by adding the word “reportedly,’’ before deleting it altogether.

It then apologized for the tweet, said it was investigating how it happened and would reveal its findings within three hours.

Pressure On SEC To Approve Spot Bitcoin ETFs Intensifying

Pressure on the SEC to approve spot Bitcoin ETFs intensified after Grayscale Investments won a landmark court victory over the SEC in late August, with the judge calling the regulator’s decision to approve Bitcoin Futures ETFs, but not spot Bitcoin ETFs, ”arbitrary and capricious.” The SEC won’t appeal that decision, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

Former BlackRock director Steven Schoenfield says spot Bitcoin ETFs may be approved as early as January, and that they may attract as much as $200 billion to Bitcoin investment products.

Research firm Bernstein says approval of spot crypto ETFs will help crypto assets under management surge as much as 13-fold in the next five years to $650 billion. The crypto fund management industry is on the cusp of a transformation from a “cottage industry’’ into a sector with $50 billion in revenues over the period, it said.