The approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs has become a classic “sell the news” event, leading to a capital rotation into Ethereum, Solana, and altcoins in general. This trend was analyzed by Glassnode.
Analysts noted that after the collapse of FTX, Bitcoin’s dominance increased from 38.9% to 49.8% at the expense of stablecoins (whose share fell from 13.9% to 7.8%) and altcoins (from 28.3% to 24.2%).
The decline in Ethereum’s capitalization relative to the total market value of all cryptocurrencies was less pronounced, from 18.9% to 18.2%.
Experts noted optimism regarding the prospects of approving spot Ethereum ETFs, which emerged after the registration of similar products based on digital gold.
In recent weeks, the ETH/BTC rate has jumped by more than 20%. According to their estimates, this is the best performance since the end of 2022 on a quarterly, monthly, and weekly basis. As a result, the combined share of Ethereum and other altcoins increased by 2.9% to 26.8%.
On January 13, the daily volume of net realized profit in Ethereum reached a multi-year high of $900 million. The growth of this indicator has been observed since mid-October 2022.
In the Ethereum futures and options market, trading activity has intensified. Turnover increased to $21.3 billion, although it is still far from the average values of 2021–2022 ($26.1 billion). For comparison, in 2023 this parameter was $13.9 billion.
In the perpetual contracts market, Ethereum’s dominance in terms of open interest rose to 40% compared to Bitcoin’s 60%. From January 2022 to December 2023, the indicator decreased from 45% to 33.8%.
Glassnode separately examined Solana’s dynamics. Relative to Bitcoin, the asset increased by 290% since October 2023. Unlike Ethereum, Solana did not respond positively to the news of spot Bitcoin ETF approval, specialists explained.
A detailed analysis of the altcoin sector showed that the driving force behind their share growth was the purchase of tokens for Ethereum scaling solutions like OP, ARB, and MATIC. Tokens from the GameFi and staking categories also showed leading dynamics compared to Bitcoin.
“[Altcoin] indices experienced a slight increase after the Bitcoin ETF approval. This is a sign of some risk appetite, as digital gold was sold off following the news,” specialists commented.
The winner in the market movement following the ETF approval was Ethereum. In the altcoin sector, its dominance increased by 4.2% to 57.5%.
FOX Business has forecasted the acceptance of spot ETFs based on the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization by summer 2024.
Earlier, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink stated that he “sees value” in a spot Ethereum fund, calling it a step towards tokenization.