ETH sees modest gains following Ethereum ETF approvals, notes $80 million in long liquidations

Ethereum's price modestly rose over the past 24 hours, following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's approvals of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds.

Ethereum traded at $3,740 as of 4 p.m. ET (20:00 UTC) Friday, a 1.76% increase in the past day. Comparatively, bitcoin rose 3.33% to trade at $69,062 in the same period, after falling 2.35% the day prior, The Block Prices show.

The trend suggests that spot ether ETF optimism continues to buoy ether, which defied the broader crypto market downturn yesterday.

Traders seem to be taking advantage of the ether enthusiasm. Following approval of eight spot ether ETF listings late Thursday afternoon, ether saw $80.3 million in long liquidations, according to the crypto data tracker Coinglass. A long position entails purchasing an asset to sell it at a higher price in the future.

Others in the crypto space have also benefitted from ether's recent regulatory win. Uniswap saw $5.52 billion in daily trading volume, an uptick of 94.91% in the past 24 hours, after the SEC's decision, according to the crypto data tracker DeFiLlama.

Ether and beyond

NEAR Protocol COO Chris Donovan thinks that, as time goes on, the recent Ethereum ETF approvals will continue to benefit the wider crypto industry.

“The approval is a strong validation of the crypto industry as a whole and could mean we see significant and better demand coming into the crypto market," Donovan said in a statement to The Block. "I think most importantly of all, it represents at long last the beginnings of a change for how the current U.S. administration has been behaving towards the crypto industry, which historically has been very hostile."

"It's been an enormous shift in momentum in a short period of time and an indication that the U.S. administration is changing its attitude towards crypto and crypto assets. There is a lot of excitement for this approval and that trading can begin," Donovan added.

It may take weeks or possibly even months for Ethereum ETFs to begin trading.