Bitcoin slips with stocks, but holds above $30K amid ETF craze

Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) saw modest selling pressure in Wednesday mid-afternoon trading, mirroring the stock market, but continued to hold above a key technical level amid speculation that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will give the green light for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund for the first time. The top crypto slipped 1.8% to $30.1K at 3:28 p.m. ET, after twice testing the $30K psychological support level earlier in the session. Ethereum ( ETH-USD ), the largest altcoin by market cap, edged down 2.9% to $1.84K. The pullbacks coincided with some risk-off action in the stock market, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq was slightly in the green. Wall Street titans BlackRock ( BLK ), Invesco ( IVZ ) and WisdomTree ( WT ) all have filed an application this month for an ETF based on the underlying bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) token. Some have suggested that approval of such a product has the potential to drive increased crypto-market inflows given the size and scale of BLK, in particular. "One crucial benefit of investing in spot Bitcoin ETF is that it becomes very easy for stock buyers to invest in ETFs," said Didar Bekbauov, founder and CEO of bitcoin group mining company Xive, adding that "investors do not have to think about how to store cryptocurrencies." Fidelity Investments, with $4.5T in assets under management, was the latest institutional player to join the spot bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) ETF race, as a Tuesday report noted that it's preparing to submit an application for the product. Price action among crypto-exposed stocks, meantime, was mixed. MicroStrategy ( MSTR ), which disclosed it had acquired over 12K bitcoins ( BTC-USD ) for $347M in cash, gained 0.9% , Riot Platforms ( RIOT ) -1.6% , Marathon Digital ( MARA ) -0.3% , Hut 8 Mining ( HUT ) +4.2% , Coinbase Global ( COIN ) +1.2% and Bakkt ( BKKT ) -2.8% . More on bitcoin and the broader crypto market: Crypto Staking With Ethereum: Liquid Staking Derivatives Are Taking Over Can Bitcoin Lightning Solve The Remittance Industry? Polygon: What We Know About '2.0'