Will Bitcoin cross $30k as SEC abandons appeal on Grayscale ETF?

• SEC decided to avoid a legal dispute against Grayscale Investments.
• Social engagements for Bitcoin grew, but overall sentiment began to decline.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chose to avoid engaging in another legal dispute with Grayscale Investments, a prominent digital asset management firm. The appeals court will soon specify how this decision should be executed, likely involving an instruction for the SEC to reevaluate Grayscale’s application.

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ETF season

ETF analyst James Seyffart confirmed that discussions between Grayscale and the SEC will commence next week, with a new SEC response anticipated within the next two weeks.

1. Done deal I guess if this is accurate. No en banc application

2. No. I do not think they will appeal to the Supreme Court either.

3. Dialogue between Grayscale and SEC should begin next week. Hoping for more info on next steps sometime next week or week after? https://t.co/2EayzqeKGq

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) October 13, 2023

This development fueled anticipation of the potential impact on Bitcoin. However, the immediate market response to the news was relatively muted, with Bitcoin prices seeing only a slight 0.15% increase in the last 24 hours.

The coin briefly touched $27k following the news, but was exchanging hands at $26,867 at press time

Simultaneously, the excitement surrounding the ETF approval was on the rise, evidenced by a 38% increase in social mentions and engagements for BTC. However, despite this surge in excitement, the weighted sentiment for Bitcoin showed a decline.

Holders remain hopeful, traders turn bearish

Notably, the NVT Signal for Bitcoin reached a five-year high, hitting 1,779.542 during this period. The NVT Signal relates to the network value to transaction ratio, suggesting that despite recent market fluctuations, Bitcoin continued to attract substantial transactional activity.

Hodlers of Bitcoin also remained consistent. According to Glassnode’s data, the amount of HODLed Bitcoins has reached a five-year high of 7,906,288.227 BTC.

This implied strong confidence in Bitcoin’s long-term value, as these users are essentially locking up their assets for extended periods.

📈 #Bitcoin $BTC Amount of HODLed or Lost Coins just reached a 5-year high of 7,906,288.227 BTC

View metric:https://t.co/dJK8rxBVD3 pic.twitter.com/6OxLnd611f

— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) October 6, 2023

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However, a surprising trend emerged with an increase in short positions taken against Bitcoin. CoinGlass’s data revealed that the percentage of short positions taken against Bitcoin grew from 44% to 53.7%.

This may be an indication of some market participants betting on a short-term price correction, possibly influenced by the ETF approval news not having a more significant immediate effect on Bitcoin’s price.