America's First Mover: Bitcoin Tops $71K as Ether ETF Hopes to Build.

Bitcoin rose above $71,000 during the European morning after analysts saw the chances of an ether ETF being approved in the US improving. BTC has risen nearly 6% in the last 24 hours, topping $71,000 for the first time since early April. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), which offers a broad gauge of the digital asset market, rose more than 8.5% while ETH jumped nearly 20% to more than $3,700. Market moves led to more than $260 million in short liquidations, the most since February 28. Ether shorts lost more than $115 million, followed by bitcoin shorts at more than $99 million, Coinglass data showed.

ETH has been supported by favorable regulatory developments that appear to indicate an increased likelihood of a spot ether ETF being approved by the SEC after the regulator asked the exchange to update its 19b-4 filing, which proposed rule changes. As a result, ether's implied volatility curve, which shows the market's expectations of future volatility across different strike and expiration prices, flattened as the 25-delta risk reversal hit a year-to-date high above 18%, and traders overwhelmingly bought $4,000 calls for May 24 and May 31, Presto Research analysts wrote. A Polymarket contract asking whether an ether ETF would be approved by May 31 jumped from 10 cents to 55 cents, representing a 55% chance that approval would occur by then.