Bitcoin rises past $45,000 amid US spot bitcoin ETF approval anticipation

Bitcoin rose above $45,000 at one stage on Tuesday morning in Asia amid investors’ anticipation of a potential approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the United States.

The largest crypto by market capitalization climbed 5.8% over the past 24 hours to trade at $44,965 at 9:25 a.m. Hong Kong time after it surged to as high as $45,083 at one stage in the morning, according to The Block data.

The price movement comes after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may reportedly notify the 14 asset managers if the SEC would approve their spot bitcoin ETF applications as early as Tuesday or Wednesday ahead of the Jan. 10 deadline.

“There’s nothing much happening on the macro side that would lead one to believe it’s anything but a crypto-related dynamic,” Justin d’Anethan, head of APAC business development of crypto market maker Keyrock, told The Block.

“In this case, we’ve had news of Blackrock, Fidelity and other spot bitcoin ETF applicants confirming names of the brokers that would support their BTC operations (so far: Jane Street, JP Morgan, Cantor Fitzgerald),” d’Anethan said, adding that such news “solidifies the current narrative that ETFs are coming and they’re coming soon.”

“Most investors expect some kind of official decision by the first half of this month, so imminently,” he continued.