Ethereum Lifts All Boats in the Crypto Harbour

Modified: Tuesday, 21 May 2024 10:40 BST
Written by: Gary Howes

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Ethereum leads the gains in the cryptocurrency market, maintaining a level of $3,650, which we have not seen for more than a month.

Bitcoin maintains its gains made during yesterday and the first minutes today, which took it to levels more than 40 days ago after regaining the $71,000 level.

These gains came after Bloomberg analysts revised their predictions regarding the possibility of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approving the launch of Ethereum spot ETFs in the US from 25% to 75%.

This was in light of the news about the authority’s request from asset managers for more filings regarding applications to launch funds, which seemed to reflect a possible shift in the position of the SEC, which was thought to reject these applications with a high probability.

Above: ETH/USD at 5-minute intervals.

These developments were able to lift Ethereum from the $3,000 level, which it had been struggling to maintain throughout recent weeks, to the 3,700 level within a few hours.

While the probability of 75% is still less than the 90% that Bitcoin ETFs had previously in January, the possibility of the authority rejecting these applications still exists.

This is in addition to the possibility of delaying the decision to take more time to study the applications, due to the different nature of Ethereum from Bitcoin.

This sudden price surge also led to the liquidation of more than $250 million in short positions in crypto derivatives yesterday, according to CoinGlass.

While Bitcoin and Ethereum captured about $80 million each from those liquidations, which were the largest since last March 6.

This sentiment pushed open positions for Ethereum futures to the highest historical levels, exceeding $14 billion, even though prices are still far from their historical highs from 2021.

This optimism also pushed Deribit's futures premium to its highest levels in more than month, reaching more than 13% for March 2025 futures.

Also, this sentiment contributed to a significant increase in activity on the most active network in the world, with the total locked value (TVL) in Ethereum L1 reaching its highest level since 2022 at $63 billion.