Bitcoin Tops $66K Amid Strong ETF Flows

Julie Bang / Investopedia

Important points

Bitcoin is trading above $66,000 again, up 2% in the last 24 hours.

Following Thursday’s inflows, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF inflows reached $861.5 million this week.

XRP has been a notable performer over the past week, up nearly 10%.

Speculation about XRP, which blockchain services company Ripple uses to facilitate transactions, has increased amid the perception that Ripple’s lawsuit against the SEC could soon be resolved.

XRP could also benefit from White House leadership being more friendly to the cryptocurrency industry.

After a slight decline on Thursday, Bitcoin (BTC) gained nearly 4% in Friday trading and rose above $66,000.

It was another positive day for U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Thursday, with $84.8 million flowing into the products, according to Farside Investors, bringing total inflows for the week to $861.5 million so far.

Optimism around the approval and potential start of trading of spot ether ETFs next week is also growing, pushing ether (ETH) prices higher. Issuers of these products have disclosed their fee structures and are now awaiting final approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The native token of the Ethereum blockchain also rose nearly 2% in trading Friday.

XRP Becomes Investors’ Favorite

Outside of the two largest crypto tokens by market cap, XRP has been performing relatively well lately, with the alternative crypto asset up nearly 10% over the week.

XRP has performed particularly well in South Korea, where the digital asset accounted for 35% to 40% of all trading volume across three popular crypto exchanges from Tuesday through Thursday. Price speculation for XRP, which is used to facilitate transactions by blockchain technology firm Ripple, has been building ahead of a possible resolution of Ripple’s legal battle with the SEC over whether XRP is an unregistered security. “We expect resolution very soon,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse told Bloomberg earlier this week.

Also, as one of the projects sanctioned by the SEC, some market observers expect XRP to benefit from the potential victory of pro-crypto Donald Trump in the US presidential election.

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