The price of ether jumped Thursday, recapturing the psychologically important $2,000 threshold for the first time since July. The strong upward action came amid a bullish sentiment in the crypto market, bolstered by news that traditional finance giant BlackRock has submitted paperwork for an iShares Ethereum Trust in Delaware — similar to its registration before applying for a spot Bitcoin ETF.
BlackRock ETH ETF Next?
BlackRock submitted a filing for the iShares Bitcoin Trust in June, which moved the crypto markets. Nonetheless, the likelihood of BlackRock filing for a spot-price Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) has been a major subject of debate among market pundits for a while now.
Much to the delight of ether enthusiasts, the world’s largest asset manager has seemingly registered an iShares Ethereum Trust in Delaware.
The registration, however, doesn’t indicate that BlackRock has applied with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to offer a spot ETH ETF, but experts today pointed out that the $10 trillion asset manager similarly registered the iShares Bitcoin Trust entity a week before it filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF.
The filing today was submitted by an entity going by the name BlackRock Advisors. The filing notes BlackRock’s managing director, Daniel Schwieger, as the registered agent.
When BlackRock filed paperwork for the formation of a spot BTC ETF, market watchers noted that the asset manager has a nearly perfect track record when it comes to filing for and getting approval from the SEC. But that hasn’t guaranteed a regulatory nod with its iShares Bitcoin Trust.
Bloomberg ETF Analysts yesterday observed that starting today, the SEC has a brief window of just eight days when it could technically greenlight all 12 Bitcoin ETF filings.
If one or all applications are approved, the asset managers will be expected to buy, own, and store Bitcoin for their customers, potentially boosting the price of the flagship crypto and the whole sector.
Ether Rockets Past $2,000
Ethereum, the second-largest crypto by market cap, today rallied above $2,000 for the first time in four months. The asset has boomed with Bitcoin, the industry’s biggest coin, which soared past $36,000.
Ether traded as high as $2,043.38, per data from CoinGecko, but has dipped slightly to a current price of $2,034.23 as of this writing. That’s a 7.2% rise over the past 24 hours and a 12.3% gain over the last week.
Even with today’s price bump, ETH remains down 58.62% from its all-time high price point of $4,878 registered at the peak of the crypto market in November 2021.