Bitcoin tops $47,000 following US ETF approval

Bitcoin soared to $47,000 on Thursday morning following the impressive reception of the first US spot Bitcoin ETFs on Wednesday.

At the time of publication, the market cap of the largest cryptocurrency was trading above $47,100, up 3.9% on the day, according to CoinGecko.

The approval of the first Bitcoin ETF by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was a landmark moment for the cryptocurrency space, allowing institutional investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without actually holding the cryptocurrency themselves.

The price of Bitcoin The approval process has been fluctuating after a fake tweet from an “aggressive” SEC Twitter account was released on Tuesday touting the approval of an all-Bitcoin ETF.

Immediately after the announcement of the SEC's Wednesday approval of many bitcoin ETFs, price action picked up steam Thursday morning.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler was one of those who voted to approve the ETF, although he posted several tweets highlighting the risks of crypto investing ahead of approval. Following a court order last year that forced the SEC to review Greyscale for a spot bitcoin ETF, “circumstances have changed,” he acknowledged in a statement.

In a hint of rebuke, SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce said the regulator “wasted a decade of opportunities to do our job” after the regulator called “our bluff court.”

BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) surged 24.3 percent in pre-market trading, trading at $27.26, with more than $2 million worth of stock trading, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas.