‘Open The Floodgates’—Crypto Suddenly Braced For Volatility Amid $100 Billion Bitcoin And Ethereum Price Boom – Forbes

06/26 update below. This post was originally published on June 23
Bitcoin BTC and ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies, have rocketed higher this week following BlackRock’s BLK bitcoin bombshell (and partly due to a surprise move by China).
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The bitcoin price has topped $30,000 per bitcoin, matching the level it reached in March ahead of a U.S.-led crypto crackdown, and boosting the combined bitcoin, ethereum and crypto market by around $100 billion in just a week.
Now, as BlackRock’s exchange-traded fund (ETF) bid triggers a flood of filings, the billionaire cofounder of New York-based crypto exchange Gemini, Cameron Winklevoss, has warned the “window” to buy bitcoin before the ETF “floodgates” open is “closing fast.”
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The bitcoin price has seen huge volatility in recent weeks, crashing back before surging higher, … [+] pulling the ethereum price with it.
“The great accumulation of bitcoin has begun,” Cameron Winklevoss, who along with his brother Tyler pivoted to bitcoin and crypto after settling their dispute with Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg over the founding of the social media company, posted to Twitter.
“Anyone watching the flurry of ETF filings understands the window to purchase pre-IPO bitcoin before ETFs go live and open the floodgates is closing fast,” he wrote, suggesting the arrival of institutional investors will resemble an initial public offering (IPO) of bitcoin.
06/26 update: The U.S. SEC approved the first leveraged bitcoin futures ETF late last week, with the Volatility Shares 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITX) now scheduled to launch on the Chicago Board Options BZX Exchange tomorrow, Tuesday, June 27.
“It’s exciting to see digital assets in the ETF wrapper,” Volatility Shares chief investment officer Stuart Barton told Coindesk, feeding expectations that regulators could wave through BlackRock’s landmark ETF application.
“I think this could be a breadcrumb signifying that the SEC may be taking a more lenient stance towards bitcoin compared to the very adversarial stance they have had over the last few years,” Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart told Bloomberg.
Wall Street giants Invesco IVZ , Wisdom Tree and Valkyrie followed BlackRock with their own applications for bitcoin spot ETFs with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). BlackRock—the world’s largest asset manager with around $10 trillion in assets under management—offers hundreds of ETFs globally.
“While crypto still needs more than favorable macroeconomic tailwinds and institutional inflows into bitcoin, this is a welcoming development that reminds investors that crypto is here to stay,” Markus Thielen, head of research and strategy at Matrixport, wrote in an emailed note.
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The bitcoin price has rebounded this year following a devastating price crash last year, helping the … [+] ethereum price rally with it.
The SEC has previously rejected all spot bitcoin ETF applications, but some see BlackRock’s attempt as a potential game-changer.
“We can imagine that this BlackRock iShares ‘commodity’ bitcoin ETF will attract an allocation in the range of around $20 billion to $50 billion over time as ETFs that are focusing on gold alone hold around $100 billion,” Thielen wrote.
“This BlackRock announcement has a high probability of being approved by the SEC, and will drive continuous adoption from institutional investors for bitcoin.”

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