According to CoinDesk, a recent report by data analytics firm CryptoQuant suggests that the approval of bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could lead to a $1 trillion growth in the total crypto market, making bitcoin a $900 billion asset. The report argues that the next wave of institutional adoption could come from financial institutions providing bitcoin access to their clients through spot ETFs, following the initial wave of institutions adding bitcoin to their balance sheets in 2020-2021.

Several major financial institutions have applied to launch spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S., with potential approvals expected by March 2024 at the latest. The inflow from spot ETFs is predicted to be significantly larger than the funds that entered the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) during the last bull market cycle. GBTC is currently the largest cryptocurrency fund in the world, with $16.7 billion in assets under management.

CryptoQuant estimates that if the issuers that have applied to list bitcoin ETFs allocate 1% of their Assets Under Management (AUM) to these ETFs, approximately $155 billion could enter the bitcoin market. This would represent nearly a third of bitcoin's current market capitalization and could potentially push its price to between $50,000 and $73,000. Historically, during previous bull markets, bitcoin's market capitalization has grown 3-5 times more than its realized capitalization, suggesting that for every $1 of fresh money entering the bitcoin market, the market capitalization could increase by $3-$5.