The world’s largest cryptocurrency to date, Bitcoin, skyrocketed after SEC Chair Gary Gensler announced that the commission has no plans to put cryptocurrencies in the United States under a ban, distinguishing itself from China’s path of actions.
„The U.S. government’s focus is on ensuring that the industry adheres to the investor and consumer protection rules, anti-money laundering regulations, and tax laws,” Gensler noted, provoked by a Republican lawmaker asking if a China-like prohibition was on the table in the U.S.
The news comes amid the much-anticipated possible Bitcoin ETF approval by the SEC. However, Gensler is more inclined towards a bitcoin futures ETF rather than one based on spot pricing, which coincides with the majority of the proposals up for review by the SEC.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced a raise in the restrictions on initial BTC futures positions, taking effect on October 18, which coincides with SEC’s expected ruling on the ProShares Bitcoin Futures Strategy ETF.
Bitcoin followed the ETF popularity surge, and made a whopping price increase, skyrocketing from around $48,000, where it consolidated for a couple of days, to a weekly high of $55,172.68. The last time Bitcoin traded above $50,000 was when El Salvador announced they are adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender. Meanwhile, banks and financial institutions continue on their Bitcoin adoption agenda, moving more and more into bitcoin to cope with the rising investor demand that added to the value of the BTC/USD.
Bitcoin’s adoption spree seems to have picked up momentum, as the fifth-largest bank in the United States, U.S. Bank, announced that its crypto custody service was available to fund managers. The move is a certain sign that large-scale financial institutions are now taking cryptocurrencies as a legitimate asset class.
Gunjan Kedia, the vice-chair of U.S. Bank’s wealth management and investment service division, noted that the functionality would allow fund managers to store client private keys for a range of cryptos like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin, with Ethereum coming in the near future.
“Our clients are getting very serious about the potential of cryptocurrency as a diversified asset class. I don’t believe there’s a single asset manager that isn’t thinking about it right now.” Kedia said in an interview.
Meanwhile, data from digital asset manager CoinShares highlighted that crypto investment products and funds recorded inflows for a 7th straight week, expanding the dominance of Bitcoin and Ethereum over the entire crypto sector.
For instance, Bitcoin started Q3 of 2021 with a price tag of around $32,000 per BTC, while finishing the trimester with a price tag of around $44,000, which makes a 37,5% price increase. During the same period, Ethereum’s price jumped by 32%, mostly due to the strengthening of the decentralized finance (DeFi) market and the emerging NFT sector, both of which almost exclusively using Ethereum’s blockchain as a medium for transactions.