ETH Outperforms BTC As BlackRock Ethereum Trust Filing Alights Crypto Market

Ether (ETH) outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) this week when it saw a double-digit gain late Thursday extending to Friday as asset management giant BlackRock filed its Ethereum Trust application, setting off an explosion in the market.

Ether, the world's second-largest crypto asset by market capitalization, and several other crypto assets stole the spotlight from Bitcoin when their values surged Thursday, creating a sea of green.

ETH, which is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum ecosystem, traded above the $2,000 price level and at some point reached as high as $2,110, highlighting an 11% gain for the day and outperforming BTC's 2.1% spike at $36,695.88 in the same period.

But what could have triggered this significant price spike in Ether, considering that it has been trading conservatively between the $1,700 and $1,800 price range over the past few weeks?

Just like it created a buzz in the market when it filed an application for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), BlackRock sparked a surge in the price of ETH by registering an iShares Ethereum Trust in Delaware on Thursday.

iShares is the official name of the ETF division of BlackRock.

While the filing was just speculation earlier, the development was confirmed by a Nasdaq filing where BlackRock wants to list the product following regulatory approval.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart said that BlackRock is not the only Wall Street giant aspiring for the approval of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a spot Ethereum ETF. He said that so far, at least five firms have filed their applications, including VanEck, ARK 21Shares, Invesco, Grayscale, and Hashdex.

Late Wednesday, Ether made significant strides by breaking the crucial $1,900 resistance level, leading to predictions that it could surge further.

As Ether approached the psychological $2,000 price threshold, traders hoped it would follow the historical pattern. When a resistance level has been broken through, it becomes a support level, which in ETH's case may become a launchpad for bigger gains.

ETH was trading in the green zone at $2,093.19 as of 4:17 a.m. ET on Friday, with a 24-hour trading volume up by 172.35% at $25.97 billion, representing a 9.29% increase in the last 24 hours and a 17.0% gain over the past seven days.

Data from CoinMarketCap shows that Ether's circulating supply stands at 120.26 million ETH, with its value up by 9.33% at a $251.55 billion market cap.