Bitcoin extended its weekly gains on Friday, briefly topping $30,000 at one point for the second time this week, as confidence a spot bitcoin ETF will soon be greenlit grew and crypto investors continued weighing uncertainty in the U.S. and abroad.
The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was recently up nearly 3% on Friday at $29,602.80, according to Coin Metrics. It’s on pace for a 11% weekly gain, its best since June 23 when it added 17%. Earlier, it climbed as high as $30,193.87.
Ether added 2.5% to trade at $1,609.60 on the day and was up 4.3% for the week. That puts it on pace for its best week since Sept. 29, when it gained 4.4%. On Friday, Ether rose to a high of $1,630.03.
The gains come even as the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield briefly topped 5% for the first time in 16 years. Higher yields historically have had a negative effect on bitcoin, but the crypto asset is benefiting from a key catalyst investors have been watching all year: the approval of what would be the first spot bitcoin ETF in the U.S. Earlier this week, JPMorgan said the Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to approve an ETF in the next few months. Mike Novogratz, whose Galaxy Digital has an ETF application with the SEC in partnership with Invesco, told CNBC he thinks it could happen as soon as the end of the year.