The price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency jumped 6% on Tuesday after a federal judge issued a long anticipated decision regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission’s denial of Grayscale’s application for a spot Bitcoin ETF.
Within less than an hour, Bitcoin rose from just above $26,000 to more than $27,600 at its height. At the time of publication, the price was hovering just under $27,500.
The total market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies, of which Bitcoin represents almost half, rose approximately 5% to $1.1 trillion. Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, also rose almost 5% once the verdict became public, now trading at just above $1,700.
The rising tide in the crypto market did not reflect a comparatively muted stock market, as the S&P 500 rose just 1% since markets opened on Tuesday, and the Nasdaq was up a bit more than 1%.
Bitcoin’s sudden price jump follows a down month for the cryptocurrency after it most recently dropped below $26,000 amid an unusually placid summer.
However, it adds to a year of gains following a disastrous 2022, when it tumbled from nearly $70,000 at the end of 2021 to just below $17,000 to start 2023. During the banking crisis in March, which most famously felled Silicon Valley Bank, Bitcoin surged to almost $28,000. In June the digital asset rocketed past $31,000, following the application of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, for a Bitcoin spot ETF.
Now, the decision in favor of Grayscale by the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. promises to add further fuel to the ETF fire, especially as the SEC stares down a number of deadlines to provide decisions on applications in the coming months.