The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has recovered from a volatile week of trading and is holding steady at $43,800 U.S. as investors await a regulatory decision on a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has a deadline of Jan. 10 to decide whether to approve the spot Bitcoin ETF applications of ARK Invest and 21Shares.
There is speculation that the Wall Street regulatory may choose to approve multiple Bitcoin ETF applications at the same time, including ones from Fidelity and BlackRock (BLK).
Anticipation of the ETF approvals had sent Bitcoin’s price above $45,000 U.S. on Jan. 2 only to see the value of the largest cryptocurrency then plunge 10% in recent days before rebounding.
Bitcoin ETFs would allow retail investors to track the price movements of the cryptocurrency without having to physically own the digital asset and are expected to attract billions of dollars worth of new capital.
Speculation surrounding the Bitcoin ETFs appeared to reach a fevered pitch in recent days after the website TechCrunch reported that the SEC plans to approve more than one spot Bitcoin ETF later this month, citing anonymous sources within the regulatory agency.
However, some market observers caution that the SEC could choose to reject all the spot Bitcoin ETF applications it has received as it has done in the past.
The price of Bitcoin has gained 160% over the last 12 months.
