Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies experienced a slight decline on Wednesday. However, Ether, the second-largest digital token, managed to hold onto its recent gains, outperforming the broader crypto market.
Bitcoin saw a decrease of 0.6% to $42,685 in the last 24 hours. Since the approval of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to spot trading of Bitcoin last week, the largest cryptocurrency has been fluctuating within the range of $42,000-$44,000.
On the other hand, Ether witnessed a 0.3% increase and reached $2,543. Following the approval of the Bitcoin ETF, Ether has mostly retained the gains it achieved, which propelled its value from around $2,300.
According to Simon Peters, an analyst at eToro, this could be an indication that the market believes Ether has a good chance of being the next cryptocurrency to have a spot ETF application approved. As the second-largest crypto asset by market cap and with Ethereum futures ETFs already available, this outlook is not entirely far-fetched.
In other crypto news, attention will be on a hearing scheduled for Wednesday. A federal judge will listen to oral arguments in a lawsuit involving cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC filed a lawsuit last year, accusing Coinbase of operating an unregistered securities exchange. Coinbase aims to convince the judge to dismiss these allegations during the initial stages of the case.
As for smaller cryptocurrencies, Solana experienced a decrease of 0.6%, Cardano dropped by 1.1%, and Dogecoin also decreased by 1.1%.
