Ethereum Soars to 7-Month Peak, Outperforming Bitcoin Amid BlackRock ETF Prospects; Altcoins See Decline

• Ethereum (ETH) Spikes 10% to Approaching $2,100 Following BlackRock's Nasdaq Confirmation for ETH ETF 
• Bitcoin (BTC) Sees 3% Daytime Surge, Trades at $36,600 
• Altcoin Declines Amidst ETH and BTC Strength as Rotation Halts

Bitcoin reached a peak of nearly $38,000, marking an 18-month high, but experienced a sharp pullback afterward. The spotlight, however, shifted to Ethereum (ETH) as BlackRock, a prominent asset management giant, laid the groundwork for listing an ETH exchange-traded fund (ETF).

In the early hours of the U.S. morning, ETH surged beyond $2,000, up from below $1,900, triggered by the registration of a corporate entity named "iShares Ethereum Trust" in Delaware. This move mirrored a previous occurrence in June when BlackRock registered the iShares Bitcoin Trust in Delaware just before filing for the actual ETF.

UPDATE: BlackRock #Ethereum ETF confirmed. They just submitted a 19b-4 filing with Nasdaq pic.twitter.com/pLhuhhK7jo

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) November 9, 2023

Following the Delaware filing, a Nasdaq filing confirmed BlackRock's plan for an ETF focused on ether. Bitcoin, responding to the BlackRock ETH news, hit a fresh 18-month high, approaching $38,000 from around $35,000. However, it experienced a swift reversal, dropping to approximately $36,300.

Altcoins Dive: XRP, DOGE, UNI, and XLM Experience Substantial Declines

ETH demonstrated strength, rising by 10% over the past 24 hours, while BTC saw a 3% increase during the same period. Meanwhile, most alternative cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, retreated, paring back gains from previous days as capital rotation to smaller tokens appeared to stall.

Ripple's XRP, dogecoin (DOGE), uniswap (UNI), and Stellar's XLM declined by 6%-7%, and toncoin (TON) retraced by 10% after a notable 20% rally over the past week. In contrast, governance tokens of top ETH liquid staking platforms, such as Lido's (LDO) and RocketPool's (RPL), rose by 18% and 23%, respectively.

Only the ETH-heavy Smart Contract Platform sector and the BTC-led Currencies sector recorded gains, while the rest of the crypto sectors experienced declines.

Altcoin weakness may have been influenced by a generally risk-off day in traditional markets after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated that the central bank wouldn't hesitate to hike interest rates if necessary, dampening expectations of a more dovish monetary policy. U.S. equities faced a downturn, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes down almost 1%.

The Significance of BlackRock's Ethereum (ETH) ETF Application

Market observers speculated that if a spot BTC ETF is approved, it could attract sophisticated investors who were previously hesitant to enter the crypto market. While there are several futures-based bitcoin and ether ETFs, they are considered inferior due to rollover costs. Diogo Monica, President of Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered digital asset bank, noted that a spot ETH ETF would have a similar impact as a BTC counterpart, offering a regulated and accessible wrapper for institutions and consumers to participate in the ETH ecosystem. He also highlighted Ethereum's additional layer of intrigue as a proof-of-stake asset, allowing underlying ETH to be staked for additional rewards.

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