Bitcoin price surpassed its previous all-time high to achieve $1,377 across major Bitcoin exchanges in Japan and the US, including Bitstamp and Bitflyer.
Such analysts as BKCM CEO Brian Kelly attribute the recent upward trend of Bitcoin price to the re-examination of the Winklevoss twins’ Bitcoin ETF COIN proposal. While Kelly emphasized that the probability of the US Securities Exchange Commission approving a Bitcoin ETF in the near future is quite low, investors are quite optimistic in regard to the situation.
Kelly wrote:
"The SEC is concerned about how most of the markets [for Bitcoin] has traded outside of the US with no regulatory oversight. As of this point, I don't think the SEC would approve the ETF. What would change my mind is if the ETF or SEC only traded Bitcoin on regulated exchanges."
Does ETF approval have a major impact on Bitcoin price?
Disapproval of the COIN ETF led Bitcoin price to plunge within minutes, from $1200 to $980. Since then, Bitcoin price recovered relatively quickly and maintained an upward trend before the announcement of the SEC to reconsider the Bitcoin ETF of the Winklevoss Twins. In fact, Bitcoin price stabilized at around $1,300 prior to the announcement of the SEC.
Therefore, the question on whether the ETF re-examining process has influence over Bitcoin price is completely speculative and inconclusive. Furthermore, the majority of the market believes the SEC will not approve the COIN ETF due to the similar reasons it provided in the past. Lack of regulation in overseas market as explained by the SEC remains identical as it was in March when the SEC denied the ETF.
It is more likely that Bitcoin’s explosive growth in Japan caused by the government’s legalization of Bitcoin is continuing to trigger an increase in the demand for Bitcoin.
Higher price in Japan
Last week, arbitrage in the US market resulted from unresolved issues between Bitcoin exchanges such as Bitfinex and their respective intermediary banks significantly bloated the Bitcoin price, to the point in which major Bitcoin exchange operators including Bitstamp CEO Nejc Kodric expressed his concern over market instability.
He explained:
"There are three things that an exchange can have trouble with. The first is having a hack, the second thing is being shut down or warned or anything around regulators and the third is getting your accounts shut down. You can survive the first two. But the third is a big one. That's a lethal injection for an exchange.”
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However, over the past few days, Bitcoin price listed on the Japanese exchange market reached parity with that of the US market. Since yesterday, on April 28, the Japanese exchange market even began to demonstrate a higher Bitcoin trading price over the US market at $1,330.