Santa brings $51,000 zone for Bitcoin despite SEC’s actions

The crypto investor sentiment turns positive just before the holidays. The Crypto community is extremely excited for a so-called Santa rally for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin struggled for the last 14 days to breach the $50,000 level, while other altcoins like MATIC and LUNA rallied to new highs.

Bitcoin is currently trading 5.43% higher at $51,027, with a market capitalization of $965 billion at the time of writing. Bitcoin has been steadily sliding sideways after establishing a new high of $69,000 on November 10, correcting itself by over 30%.

Money has been flowing from risky asset classes like crypto and equities to other safe-haven securities as inflation has reached new highs, and the Fed has announced tighter monetary policies. While many people think of Bitcoin as a hedge against equities, it hasn’t proven to be so so far! According to Ross Mayfield, an investment strategy specialist at Baird:

“I view Bitcoin as a high-beta risk asset. When risk appetite is up, it’s up big. And when risk appetite is down, it can be down big. It’s not perfectly correlated, that’s definitely too simple of a read, but it’s certainly not a volatility hedge.”

SEC disapproved Two Bitcoin Spot ETFs

Despite the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejecting two Bitcoin spot ETFs, the price has risen today. The SEC has expressed strong opposition to the adoption of the physically-backed Bitcoin ETF amidst being familiar with Bitcoin Futures ETFs.

The U.S. SEC has rejected two Bitcoin spot ETF proposals from Valkyrie Investments and Kryptoins, citing a failure to meet the regulator’s criteria of combating manipulative activities and fraud.

The well-known Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas called the last rejection a “Scrooge-jection.” He went on to say:

“The fact that the SEC is disapproving faster than they needed to — we were optimistic about futures, but we’re not confident in a 2022 approval”.