ETH Climbs While Rest of Major Cryptocurrencies Slide Ahead of ETF Decision

Investors anticipate that the approval of spot Ethereum ETFs could attract institutional investment

Ethereum’s ETH token was the only major digital asset to climb on Thursday ahead of the much-anticipated U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) spot Ethereum ETF decision.

Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency is rising by 0.9% to $3,789, in the past 24 hours. BTC is down 3.5% at $67,884, while BNB and Solana’s SOL are down by more than 4%, according to data from CoinGecko.

Today is an important date in the approval process for the spot Ethereum Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). The SEC will decide on VanEck’s spot Ethereum ETF application, which is the first of several similar applications.

Investors believe that the approval of spot Ethereum ETFs could lead to inflows from institutional investors.

Trading firm QCP Capital forecasts that Ether could rally above 60% if the ETH ETF approval goes through. “We think an approval is now highly likely with trading expected as early as next week,” it said.

On the macroeconomics front, the Federal Reserve minutes came from the April 30 to May 1 policy meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. Released on Wednesday, the minutes indicated that policymakers were unsure about when to ease monetary policy.

The Fed aims for a 2% inflation rate, but the indicators showed price increases well above that target. “Participants observed that while inflation had eased over the past year, in recent months there had been a lack of further progress toward the Committee’s 2 percent objective,” the summary said.

Meanwhile, the latest unemployment data suggests the job market shows a sign of relief. The Labor Department reported on Thursday that initial claims for jobless benefits totaled 215,000 for the week ending May 18, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week.

U.S. stocks climbed on Thursday as Wall Street analyzed Nvidia’s latest quarterly results, which beat expectations. The S&P 500 increased by 0.4%, the Nasdaq Composite surged by 2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 0.2%.