Will BTC Repeat 2017’s Bull Run History If the U.S. SEC Approves Bitcoin ETF?

Earlier this week on Wednesday, October 6, Bitcoin rallied to $55,000 hitting a four-month high amid strong whale accumulation. However, the BTC price has been flirting around $54,000 since then.

Analysts are expecting the BTC price to touch $100K this year. Will Bitcoin replicate the Q4 2017 price rally once again? All hopes are on the possibility of the Bitcoin ETF approval ahead of this month. Strong rumors in the market suggest that the U.S. SEC could be approving the first Bitcoin ETF of America, later this month.

Similar was a case back in 2017! On October 31st, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group announced its Bitcoin futures in the market. The CME Bitcoin Futures launched on December 18, 2017, went the BTC price touched an all-time high back then.

Calling it a ‘buy the rumors, sell the news’ kind of moment, crypto analysts Lark Davis notes that he wouldn’t be shocked to see a similar kind of situation panning out if Bitcoin ETF gets the approval. Not to forget, the institutional activity in Bitcoin is much higher than it was in 2017.

JPMorgan: Institutions Preferring Bitcoin Over Gold

In a note from JPMorgan accessed by Markets Insider, the recent BTC price rally in October has been due to institutional participation. It said that the institutional investor appetite has grown, post the SEC and the Fed assuring that they won’t ban digital assets.

The banking giant said that the earlier trend of money moving out of Bitcoin and going into Gold has re-emerged once again. It added: “Institutional investors appear to be returning to Bitcoin perhaps seeing it as a better inflation hedge than gold”. The three major reasons behind the recent Bitcoin price rally are:

1. “The recent assurances by US policy makers that there is no intention to follow China’s steps towards banning the usage or mining of cryptocurrencies.”
2. “The recent rise of the Lightning Network and 2nd layer payments solutions helped by El Salvador’s bitcoin adoption.”
3. “The re-emergence of inflation concerns among investors has renewed interest in the usage of bitcoin as an inflation hedge.”

Since the start of 2021, more than $10 billion have flown out of Gold ETF. On the other hand, over $20 billion has entered Bitcoin funds. “The increase in the share of bitcoin is a healthy development as it is more likely to reflect institutional participation than smaller cryptocurrencies,” said JPMorgan.