They tried to say it was there since August this year, to clear the fud and attack against their service.

But it's hard to believe that the iBTC ticker was there since August and no one knew about it till October.

Yeah, it is very uncanny for them to removed the ticker when someone notice it on their website. So it could be that they just made a big and honest mistakes on their end, or they wanted to see the pulse of the crypto world and see what will be the reaction. And so obviously, it created a lot of noise and pushes the price to $35k. And the good thing is that even after they have taken it down, the prices keeps on that price range.

As for the ETF coming soon, yeah, the pressure is now on SEC to approved it. There are big guys playing on the market right now, too influential that the SEC can't really do anything about it but to approved it. And most likely it will coincide with the bull run in the next year.

I am not so concerned about BTC spot etf approval in the U.S., i have read from so many members in this forum that an approval is a matter of when and not if, but even if all applications get denied; i wouldn't be disappointed. I talk a lot about not your keys, not your coins, so maybe that is why i am not fully interested in spot etf's.

If institutional investors want to buy through etf's and do not want to store the keys to their coins, so be it, it is a free market and a spot etf approval would give them the opportunity to 'own' BTC. But then again, i wouldn't keep on talking about BTC spot etf's like the network depends on it, and that's what many members have been doing here lately.

They will approve it but at the time when we don't expect it. Something like there is an element of surprise and the regular people are not able to buy. For now, SEC may actually wait for the BTC ETF news to die down and none of the crypto news sites will publish about it anymore.

Once people\s attention are once again drawn to some war somewhere, the SEC will secretly approve ETF and list it like it was approved months ago.

Well you should be concerned. As the largest institutional Bitcoin investors are in the US. Furthermore it will promote Bitcoin adoption in a country which has, historically, been pushing against Bitcoin (albeit unsuccessfully ).

And yes, the other members in the forum that told you that the approval of an ETF is only a matter of time are completely right. It is now only a matter of time as there are no more hurdles in the path of a Bitcoin ETF.

The main speculation is WHEN. Thats what this hype and current pump is all about.

I believe we’re blowing the impact of ETFs out of proportion. Of course, spot ETFs will help drive Bitcoin’s value higher and might even create a threshold of resistance, which will be good for all of us, but this isn’t the only way Bitcoin will go up.

Bitcoin is a sophisticated currency. It’s the first of its kind in many ways. Its independence and potential for growth are why these institutions want to get a piece of the pie, but that won’t be the start or end of anything.

Those who continue to hold their investment in Bitcoin will continue to benefit as it grows in value. I’m more focused on when Bitcoin will hit $100K than when the US gets its first spot Bitcoin ETF.

People have been linking the current price pump to ETF, but I dont go in that line, because I think a price change is due to multiple reasons and pinpointing one reason to it is an oversimplification. At present, just like what happened a few years back the news of Bitcoin ETF and its entry in the market developed a hype that eventually died out.

Let the SEC make their calls and get a final decision out. When it comes it will come, and we will all see ETFs on the exchanges. Till then it is speculative new piece, with people trying to make money off the hype and not the ETF.

Just a question from a non expert.

If an ETF gets approved and it causes a liquidity crisis in regular banks (people massively withdrawing funds to invest in BTC) wouldn't that be an argument for governments to disprove an ETF?

Nixon once forbade the convertibility from dollars into gold, to protect the monetary stability of the USA. I wonder if we can expect similar measures against BTC. I'm from Europe and I just heard that I can't send money to Binance anymore. In fact I wonder how I still have to invest in BTC safely

These may be just some of the effects. Liquidity crises in banks can also be influenced by other factors, such as the issue of bankruptcy in a country which causes panic among customers to make large withdrawals and other factors. In essence, the SEC and the world's top economic regulators are looking for a loophole, if they get it then ETFs and bitcoin will be legally accepted.

Gold has long been a currency as well as an investment, but after the fiat currency system was created, gold was replaced and only became an investment asset, as well as Bitcoin, which has only been a safe haven investment until now. There is still fear from the system controllers that fiat currencies will be disturbed by Bitcoin and gold. Therefore, the SEC as the front guard must be careful in determining anything that has the potential to damage the system.

*This is just my personal opinion, and may be wrong and without proper data arguments.