Amid the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the US, Ethereum (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency, has seen an impressive rise of more than 10 per cent, breaking a one-year high. Experts now believe that ETH could be the next candidate for spot ETF approval, according to information from Bloomberg.
According to CoinGecko, Ethereum is currently trading at $2,673. Over the past 24 hours, the value of this cryptocurrency has grown by 12.1 per cent. While the price of bitcoin (BTC) increased by 5.5%, Ethereum showed significant growth, emphasising the change in sentiment among traders.
Experts believe that the gap in reaction between bitcoin and ether implies a possible shift in the interests of traders who are awaiting the approval of spot ETFs on Ethereum by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). So far, requests to launch spot ETFs on Ethereum have been filed by major companies such as BlackRock, Hashdex, ARK 21Shares, VanEck and Fidelity. Richard Galvin, co-founder of DACM, notes that Ethereum's size and liquidity, as well as the availability of futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), make a physical ETF on ETH in the US viable, replicating the successful BTC model.
Consensys Chief Strategist Lawrence Smith emphasises that SEC approval of ETFs is only the first step in the approval of digital asset funds, and he also predicts that a spot Ethereum-ETF will be next in line. Bloomberg analysts express confidence that a new instrument based on a second cryptocurrency will be approved with a 70 per cent probability as early as this spring. This comes after their accurate prediction of the approval date for spot BTC ETFs.
In early January, developers finally approved the Ethereum testnet update schedule, with the Dencun hardfork starting on 17 January on the Goerli testnet, followed by Sepolia updates on 30 January and Holesky on 7 February. Dencun is expected to implement the EIP-4844 proposal, known as "proto-danksharding," aimed at scaling the network and reducing transaction fees on rollup-based Layer 2 (L2) networks.
