Bitcoin dives 4% Friday, week after ETF approval

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Bitcoin's price dove around 4% on Friday, a week after approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as consumers' optimism has partially faded.

Price of Bitcoin fell to as low as $40,768 during that day, while it was trading just above $41,000 at 10.51 a.m. EDT for a daily loss of 3.9%.

Total value of the cryptocurrency market was down almost 3.7% to $1.61 trillion at the time, according to data from CoinMarketCap, a digital asset price-tracking website.

Bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency touched almost the $49,000 level on Jan.11 -- the day when the US' Securities and Exchange Commission approved spot Bitcoin ETFs.

The much-awaited decision now allows investors, especially financial institutions, to trade Bitcoin without owning it.

Just a week after the approval, Bitcoin surpassed silver on Thursday to become the second biggest ETF commodity asset class in the US in terms of assets under management, also known as AUM, with more than $27 billion, behind gold AUM at approximately $96 billion.

Analysts attribute the recent price decline to fading optimism among investors who now seek to liquidate their positions to some extent to profit from the recent rally.