Bitcoin (BTC) is back on the move higher in trading on Thursday as the post-ETF launch pullback that began on Jan. 11 has all but been erased, with bulls now looking to take out the yearly high above $48,000.
BTC/USD Chart by TradingView
A Wednesday report from JPMorgan said there is evidence that BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC Bitcoin ETFs have already overtaken Grayscale in terms of two key liquidity metrics linked to market breadth, and warned the crypto-focused asset manager needs to lower its fees to remain competitive.
The analysts highlighted the bank’s proxy for market breadth based on the Hui-Heubel ratio, saying the value for GBTC is about four times higher than those of Blackrock and Fidelity ETFs, implying they “exhibit significantly more market breadth than GBTC.”
The second metric is based on the “average absolute deviation” of ETF closing prices from net asset value (NAV), the report said. Over the past week, this metric showed the “ETF price deviation from NAV of the Fidelity and Blackrock spot bitcoin ETFs approached that of the GLD Gold ETF, implying a significant improvement in liquidity, while the deviations for the GBTC ETF have remained high, implying lower liquidity.”
According to the latest “Cointucky Derby” update from Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart, IBIT now has $3.44 billion in assets under management (AUM), while FBTC has $2.8 billion.
Cointucky Derby Update from yesterday's data. Strong net inflow day. Fidelity's $FBTC nearing in on $3 billion. pic.twitter.com/CyL7XfEq9w
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) February 8, 2024
While both products have seen considerable growth, they are still significantly behind GBTC, which has $20.68 billion in AUM.
Addressing the Bitcoin price action, market analyst CryptoChiefs said, “Today's Daily Open level at $44.3k is quite significant if the day closes above this level.”
“This was strong resistance leading up to the ETF decision, and only traded above this for a short period,” he said. “If this can be confirmed as support, then this could be the beginning of the move back towards $49k.”
“There is liquidity growing at $44.8k - $45k, so potentially big resistance here,” he added. “For continuation, we want to see a strong reaction on any retest of the old range resistance at $43.8k - $43.2k.”
MN Trading founder Michaël van de Poppe said the initial market volatility sparked by the release of the first spot BTC ETFs is now behind us, and we are now “back to regular, organic growth of the markets.”
#Bitcoin is above $45K and showing a lot of strength!
Between $38-50K is the defined range and the expectance that we'll consolidate.
Positive impact of the ETF = priced in.
Negative impact of the ETF = priced in.
Now we're back to regular, organic growth of the markets. pic.twitter.com/DBNqARPeRW— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) February 8, 2024
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $45,105, an increase of 3.75% on the 24-hour chart.
