Bitcoin suddenly rockets past $34K as ETF excitement grows

Uptober may have finally arrived, with the price of Bitcoin (BTC) surpassing the $34,000 mark for the first time since May last year, rising an astonishing 14% in the past 24 hours.

According to data from TradingView, on October 23, the price of Bitcoin suddenly surged, rising more than 10% from $31,000, briefly touching $34,000, and then falling back to the current price of $33,349.

*Bitcoin price over the past two weeks. Source: TradingView*

The sudden rise in Bitcoin prices comes amid a new wave of interest in upcoming spot ETF approvals and a significant increase in overall spot market trading volume.

Analyst Scott Johnson tip Investment giant Blackrock may begin “seeding” its spot ETF products as early as this month.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas writes that a seed ETF refers to providing initial capital in exchange for shares of the ETF that can be traded on the open market.

Note: Seed capital is usually not a lot of money, just enough to get the ETF going. So I wouldn’t read that at all as, “Oh my gosh, BlackRock is buying a lot of Bitcoin,” but more that the fact that they’re doing it and disclosing it is another step in the rollout process.

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 23, 2023

Cryptocurrency market commentators and community members were stunned by the sudden rise. Independent journalist Autism Capital asked their 237,000 followers; “What the hell just happened?”