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Ethereum breaches $3,000 as ETF anticipation grows

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Today is the day of the long-awaited Ethereum Dencun upgrade. Dencun will reduce Layer 2 transaction fees and involve “blobs” and "Proto-dank sharding". On Monday, Ethereum punched above $4,000 for the first time since December 2021. This new cycle high has happened even in the face of the perceived diminishing likelihood of an Ethereum spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) being approved by the SEC. 
Today is the day of the long-awaited Ethereum Dencun upgrade. Dencun will reduce Layer 2 transaction fees and involve “blobs” and "Proto-dank sharding". On Monday, Ethereum punched above $4,000 for the first time since December 2021. This new cycle high has happened even in the face of the perceived diminishing likelihood of an Ethereum spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) being approved by the SEC. 

On Tuesday, Ethereum (ETH) crossed $3,000 for the first time since April 2022. Anticipation of the Ethereum spot ETF approval deadline on 23 May is one of the main catalysts.

The deadline forces the SEC to decide whether or not spot Ethereum ETF products will also become available for US investors. It will also retest BlackRock’s near-undefeated ETF approval win rate of 576-1. 

Hester Pierce, the crypto-friendly SEC commissioner, asserted the SEC would avoid repeating the mistakes made with the Bitcoin ETF.

In the case of bitcoin, it took the crypto trust Grayscale to resort to legal action, needlessly extending the process and highlighting the SEC’s hostility towards Bitcoin and crypto. Ethereum’s recognition as a commodity by US regulators diminishes reasons for rejection.

On Wednesday, Coinbase endorsed Grayscale’s application to convert its ETH trust into an ETF – emphasising this stance.

Unlike Bitcoin, the Ethereum community has shown readiness to adapt its technology. Ethereum is more of a technology platform than the ‘digital gold’ that Bitcoin stands for.

The March 13 Dencun hard fork serves as an example of Ethereum’s tech adaptability and will enhance the platform’s scalability. These changes are expected to boost transaction throughput.

They will also reduce transaction costs on Ethereum’s scaling protocols, known as Layer 2s, such as Arbitrum and Optimism.

From a wider market point of view, the saying “sell in May and go away” becomes more interesting as crypto edges towards previous all-time highs.

With bullish developments such as strong Bitcoin ETF flows, the approaching Bitcoin halving and Ethereum’s potential spot ETF, demand for crypto is evidently rising.

The final bullish indicator comes from an unexpected direction. The European Central Bank (ECB) released a blog with reasons why Bitcoin is still worth 0.

The last time this happened was in November 2022, when the ECB’s blog post “Bitcoin’s last stand” perfectly marked the bear cycle’s bottom.

Crypto market participants have not failed to point out the irony. For now, the ECB does not mention Ethereum in its blog posts, but an ETF launch could change this. The sentiment remains bullish.