What happened
Bitcoin (BTC 0.88%) tokens reached a fresh all-time high late Monday evening and stayed close to the record price on Tuesday. Bitcoin prices peaked at $68,530 per token near 11 p.m. EST on Monday, cooling down to $66,931 per token at 1 p.m. EST today. The latter reading is still 2% above the token's 24-hour low, just before Wall Street's closing bell on Monday. At the late-night peak, Bitcoin saw a 4.4% gain from the same daily bottom.
The largest name in the cryptocurrency market did have some news to share, but the price move was primarily a continuation of a general upward trend in recent weeks.
So what
Crypto-trading platform BlockFi just filed a Form S-1 to the Securities and Exchange Commission, starting the process to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) focused on holding Bitcoin tokens. The net asset value (NAV) of this proposed fund is unknown, but BlockFi currently manages more than $10 billion of cryptocurrency assets. The company has already posted a similar filing to start up an ETF managing Bitcoin futures instead of the actual tokens, much like the just-approved ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO 1.33%). That proposal is making its way through the SEC's decision-making process, followed by a decision on BlockFi's bitcoin-holding ETF.
Bitcoin's trading volume is also surging as investors, both small and large, are starting or growing their holdings.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
That being said, BlockFi's ETF won't be large enough to move the needle on Bitcoin prices. The real price-boosting action here comes from market momentum as the Bitcoin concept keeps making headlines and attracting new investors.
I can't guarantee that Bitcoin tokens will continue to rise from here, but the cryptocurrency market doesn't seem headed for another drastic correction like the 83% price reduction in 2018. Regulators and financial system managers are taking cryptocurrencies much more seriously this time around, and nobody expected Bitcoin-based ETFs during the short-lived 2017 boom.
I'm happy to hold on to the fraction of a bitcoin token I hold, watching the volatile pricing drama play out in the open market. Bitcoin and other crypto tokens may indeed have a place in serious investment portfolios nowadays.
