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- Bitcoin jumped as high as $30,000 on Friday, hovering about 4.5% higher in early trading.
- The token spiked 10% briefly on Tuesday after a false report said the SEC approved BlackRock's spot bitcoin ETF.
- Bullishness around a the spot bitcoin ETF is high, with calls growing for the SEC to sign off on a first-ever fund.
Bitcoin moved above $30,000 on Friday, spiking above the closely watched threshold before paring some gains, as a week of bullishness around a spot bitcoin ETF helps push the token higher.
Bitcoin traded 4.5% higher, around $29,613, at 9:45 a.m. in New York. The world's largest cryptocurrency is close to a 10% gain for the week.
Hopes for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund have helped fuel the latest rally. On Tuesday, its price jumped 10% briefly after a false tweet from the trade publication CoinTelegraph that the Securities and Exchange Commission had approved BlackRock's application for a spot bitcoin ETF.
The SEC has already approved bitcoin futures ETFs, though regulators have turned down bitcoin spot ETF applications repeatedly in recent years. With big names such as BlackRock and Fidelity joining the race, however, optimism is climbing.
Billionaire Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital and a bullish crypto investor, said he still expects a spot bitcoin ETF product to gain approval before 2024, pointing to the flurry of requests for the product over the last year.
"It's going to get approved...We think it happens this year in 2023," Novogratz said. "All the indications of dealing seem to be heading in the right direction."
In the recent lawsuit between regulators and Grayscale, he explained, the court ruled against the SEC because allowing a futures ETF but not a spot ETF "makes intellectually zero sense."
In a letter to Gary Gensler earlier this week, a group of House Financial Services Committee members urged the SEC to pull back its efforts to block the approval of a spot bitcoin ETF.
Meanwhile, Google Trends shows search interest in "spot bitcoin ETF" is on track to hit a five-year high, as CoinDesk pointed out Friday, pointing to growing mainstream interest as well.