Bitcoin surged up and to the right overnight after a prominent crypto media outlet’s Twitter/X post circulated, without a source verification, noting that a BTC spot ETF had been approved.

Bitcoin pumped like crazy almost immediately after, moving from the high US$27ks, busting up towards US$30k. On some exchanges it did just touch US$30k.

Talk about quickly and aggressively grabbing the ball, eh?

But… it was a false dawn. And it didn’t take too long for Bloomberg‘s ETF editors, including Eric Balchunas, to question the post.

Reportedly… “reportedly” was then added to the post, before it was removed altogether.

Later, a spokesperson from BlackRock, one of the major financial institutions in the hunt for spot BTC ETF approval, confirmed to Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett that the news was false and that its application is still under review.

By the way, in case you didn’t know, if/when Gary Gensler and his US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally approves a spot Bitcoin ETF, BlackRock’s iShares ETF is the one widely tipped as a frontrunner. Although several experts also believe a bunch of other prominent applications could be granted approval at the same time.

So, regarding the false start… what do they say in crypto? Don’t trust, verify? In any case, it’s a bit of a reminder to us all dabbling in crypto and/or reporting.

Also, it appears that several million dollars’ worth of BTC was liquidated within minutes of the false ETF news. There might be a few Bitcoin day traders out there feeling not best pleased right now.

 

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink thinks it’s bullish

Nevertheless, at the time of writing, Bitcoin is currently defending a reasonable amount of the gains made from the inaccurate reporting and is currently still well up (+4.4%) from this time yesterday, changing hands around US$28,400.

And lookey here, as reported by Fox Business among others, none other than BlackRock’s CEO, Larry “Fink Tank” Fink has chimed in on the false reporting, describing the price-pumping part of the episode as “pent-up interest in crypto”…

“I can’t talk about the specifics of anything, I think it’s just an example of the pent-up interest in crypto,” said Fink on a Fox Business program, adding:

“We are hearing from clients around the world about the need for crypto… Some of this rally is way beyond the rumor – I think the rally today is about a flight to quality, with all the issues around the Israeli war now, global terrorism, and I think there are more people running into a flight to quality,” he added.

Jeez, you think he’s bullish on Bitcoin, much? Taking note are we, follow-the-money types?

 

Top 10 overview

With the overall crypto market cap at US$1.13 trillion, up about 3% since this time yesterday, here’s the current state of play among top 10 tokens – according to CoinGecko.

 

Uppers and downers

Some of the biggest 24-hour gainers and losers at press time. (Stats accurate at time of publishing, based on CoinGecko.com data.)

 PUMPERS (11-100 market cap position)

• Bitcoin SV (BSV), (market cap: US$729 million) +13%

• Render (RNDR), (market cap: US$694 million) +9%

• Bitcoin Cash (BCH), (market cap: US$4.45 million) +5%

• Rollbit Coin (RLB), (market cap: US$495 million) +5%

• Polygon (MATIC), (market cap: US$4.95 billion) +3%

 

SLUMPERS

• Trust Wallet (TWT), (market cap: US$435 million) -5%

• Maker (MKR), (market cap: US$1.26 billion) -4%

• LEO Token (LEO), (market cap: US$3.44 billion) -4%

 

Around the blocks

Some pertinence and randomness that stuck with us on our morning moves through the Crypto Twitterverse.

Finally, Wall Street, by the way, also rallied overnight. Per Eddy’s Market Highlights report earlier today:

In New York, the S&P 500 rose by +1.06%, the blue chips Dow Jones index was up by +0.93%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rallied by +1.2%.

Stocks lifted across the board ahead of a host of corporate earnings this week, and diplomatic efforts to contain the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Oil prices have eased, and safe haven flight to bonds has faded with funds going back to equities.

Read MoreBitcoinCryptocurrency

You might be interested in