Bitcoin Retreats To $66K Amid Spot Ethereum ETF Approval, Ether Largely Unmoved

Bitcoin, the world's top digital asset, has retreated after passing $71,000 over the last weekend. The cryptocurrency has been on a steady decline ever since progress on the approval of spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) was reported earlier this week.

While BTC has been on a gradual decline over the past four days, it dramatically dropped to $66,300 at one point Thursday, when the SEC approved spot Ethereum ETFs. Before the plunge, the digital asset opened the trading day at $69,100.

As of writing, Bitcoin prices were trading between $66,900 and $66,800.

The cryptocurrency community went abuzz after the SEC approved 19b-4 filings on spot ETH ETFs Thursday. The Wall Street regulator has yet to approve the forms of issuers, but the development is considered a major milestone for the Ethereum community.

Despite the price decline, it appears that spot BTC ETFs continue to be popular some three months after their approval by the SEC. Bitcoin ETFs saw total net inflows exceeding $154 million Wednesday, marking the eighth consecutive day of positive net flows for the financial products.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs had a smoother journey toward approval by the SEC, as the regulatory agency held positive meetings with issuers and key players before the funds were approved.

On the contrary, the approval of Ethereum ETFs was nothing like it, as the SEC has been largely silent and only seemed to provide comments to applicants in the days leading to Thursday's approval.

Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas noted that "like us everyone else assumed they'd be denied" before reports of progress first emerged Monday.

Late last month, companies that filed to launch spot Ether ETFs were reportedly expecting the SEC to reject the funds following discouraging outcomes in meetings with the regulator. SEC staff allegedly did not specify their concerns and only listened to whatever the applying issuers had to say.

Ahead of the spot BTC ETF approval in January, industry observers noted the regulator's swift response to the filings of applying issuers.

It remains to be seen whether Bitcoin's price will be significantly affected by the developments surrounding Ether, the world's second-largest digital currency by market value. However, it appears that there may be some bad blood around the popular digital assets.

Crypto enthusiast Toby Cunningham wrote on X Thursday that "there are some toxic Bitcoin maxis out there that hate the fact that there is a spot ETH ETF." Maximalists, or maxis, are holders of a specific cryptocurrency who advocate strongly for the said token regardless of market sentiment.

As Bitcoin retreated, Ether did not see much price action even after the ETF approval. The native Ethereum blockchain token was trading at around $3,600 and $3,800 on Thursday.