June 21 (UPI) — Bitcoin surged above $30,000 on Wednesday, after investment firm BlackRock filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an exchange traded fund (ETF) for the cryptocurrency.
The price of Bitcoin hit a six-week high of $30,067.01, representing an approximate 10% increase in the past 24 hours.
In response to BlackRock’s move, other investment firms focused on digital assets have followed suit, including WisdomTree and Valkyrie, driving up the crypto currency’s price.
BlackRock has an existing relationship with Coinbase, a publicly-traded company based in San Francisco which operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Coinbase is listed as the custodian of BlackRock’s proposed ETF, on documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Vijay Ayyar with Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX told CNBC in an interview that the “slate of spot bitcoin ETF application announcements by larger institutions has definitely brought back bullishness into the crypto markets.”
Digital assets have drawn negative news over the last half year, after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and subsequent criminal case against its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
