Bitcoin gains with all top 10 crypto, Fidelity confirms Bitcoin ETF bid, U.S. economy rebounds

Bitcoin gained along with all other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies on Friday morning in Asia after data this week showed the U.S. economy expanded even in the face of repeated interest rate hikes. U.S. GDP grew faster than expected in the first quarter and initial jobless claims came in at less than expected. Also, asset manager Fidelity Investments on Thursday filed to offer a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

All top 10 cryptos rise

Bitcoin climbed 1.05% to US$30,453 over the last 24 hours to 6:40 a.m. in Hong Kong, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is up 1.43% over the past seven days.

Ether rose 1.28% to US$1,853, but is down 1.4% for the week.

All top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies traded higher. Solana led the gains on a 12.35% jump and a 7.56% weekly gain. This despite the Thursday announcement from Cardinal, a Solana non-fungible token (NFT) protocol, that it will be winding down operations due to what it called a challenging macroeconomic environment.

Cardinal tweeted on Thursday that the team will disable new deposit instructions on July 19 and cease operations on features including staking and new NFT rentals.

Elsewhere, Fidelity has refiled an application for a spot Bitcoin ETF. The Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows that the COBE exchange has proposed to list and trade shares of the Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust. The SEC rejected a Bitcoin ETF application from Fidelity in 2021.

Fidelity’s move follows a wave of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF applications submitted by asset managers this month, including BlackRock, WisdomTree, Invesco and Bitwise, indicating institutions are confident in the profit potential of digital assets and demand.

“To this point, the lack of a spot Bitcoin ETP exposes U.S. investor assets to significant risk because investors that would otherwise seek crypto asset exposure through a spot Bitcoin ETP are forced to find alternative exposure through generally riskier means,” the Fidelity filing said.

On Wednesday, investment management fund ARK Invest also filed an amendment to its April application for a spot Bitcoin ETF.

The total cryptocurrency market cap rose 1.24% to US$1.17 trillion, with trading volume dropping 12.22% to US$29.96 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.