On Monday, March 11th, Bitcoin (BTC) crossed the $72,000 level for the first time during the Asian trading hours. The leading cryptocurrency even exceeded the $75,000 marker to set a new all-time high.
Bitcoin has been steadily rising in value since the turn of the year, especially after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first batch of spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US.
Last week, the apex cryptocurrency surged past its previous all-time high of $69,044, set in November 2021. Meanwhile, Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, also crossed $4,000 on Monday.
London Stock Exchange to Launch ETNs Linked to Bitcoin and Ether in Q2 2024
Market experts attributed BTC’s latest rally to the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) decision to accept applications for exchange-traded notes (ETNs) linked to Bitcoin and Ether.
ETNs are debt securities issued by banking institutions that track the price of an underlying asset during an exchange’s trading hours. Meanwhile, ETFs invest directly in the underlying asset, such as stocks, commodities, or currencies, and use their price to determine the fund’s value.
As per a factsheet released by LSE, eligible ETN issuers must ensure that the notes are physically backed by the BTC or ETH and are non-leveraged. Moreover, the market price of the notes should be equivalent to the value of the asset backing it and should be reliable and publicly available to investors.
Additionally, the Bitcoin and Ether supporting the ETN’s price must be “wholly” held in a cold wallet solution that includes cold staking. The custodians assigned by the fund’s issuers are subject to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) in the United Kingdom, United States, European Union, and Switzerland.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – the securities regulator of the UK – is open to accepting proposals for crypto-focused ETNs from Recognized Investment Exchanges (REIs) that meet the legal requirements laid out in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA).
The London Stock Exchange is an RIE, making it eligible to issue Bitcoin and Ether-backed exchange-traded notes for British investors.
However, the crypto ETNs will only be available to “professional investors”, such as credit institutions and investment firms, while retail investors are barred from putting their money into the notes. The FCA reasoned in its statement that this was because ETNs and other derivatives pegged to crypto assets are “high risk and largely unregulated”.
The move comes after an increasing number of UK investors demanded exposure to the novel digital asset class. Now the leading stock exchange in Britain is offering them what they want through regulated and familiar investment vehicles.
The LSE confirmed that it would accept Bitcoin and Ether ETN proposals from the second quarter of this year. However, the exchange has yet to confirm a date as to when the notes will be listed for trade.
Bitcoin Tips Silver Market Cap to Become Eighth Most Valuable Property
Bitcoin’s remarkable rally has resulted in it jumping the market cap of silver to become the eighth most valuable asset in the world. On Monday, the dominant cryptocurrency rose 4% to an all-time high of $72,400 during the early US trading hours.
BTC’s market capitalization shot to $1.42 trillion, tipping silver’s $1.38 trillion valuation. Earlier in the historic bull run, the crypto asset managed to push ahead of Meta’s market cap, which now stands at $1.2 trillion.
The next target for Bitcoin is Alphabet, the parent company of tech giant Google, whose current valuation is just shy of $1.7 trillion.
Pro-Bitcoin advocates are optimistic that the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap will eventually surpass the $14.7 trillion valuation of the world’s most valuable asset – gold. For this to happen, BTC’s price will have to rise more than 10 times, trading at $720,000 per token.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $72,018 – up 5.1% in the last 24 hours – while Ethereum (ETH) is priced at $4.042 with a market cap of $485.53 billion.
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