Historical replay · BTC/USD
The ETF Approval Rally (January 2024)
On January 10, 2024, the SEC approved the first US spot Bitcoin ETFs, after over a decade of rejected applications — a watershed moment for institutional adoption, with intense two-way volatility in the hours that followed.
The first applications for a US spot Bitcoin ETF date back to 2013, but for over a decade the SEC rejected all of them, citing concerns about manipulation of the underlying market. On January 10, 2024, the SEC simultaneously approved eleven spot ETFs, including products from major asset managers like BlackRock and Fidelity, opening direct access to Bitcoin through ordinary stock brokerage accounts for the first time.
Trading began on January 11, 2024. Surprisingly, instead of an immediate rally, Bitcoin's price fell in the days following approval — a classic example of "sell the news," where a heavily anticipated event already priced in by the market becomes an occasion to take profit, even when the news itself is positive.
Over the following weeks, however, capital flows into the new ETFs turned out to be far larger than expected — BlackRock's IBIT fund became one of the fastest-growing ETFs in history — and the price resumed climbing decisively in the following months. The episode remains a classic case study in how a fundamentally positive catalyst can still produce an immediate price reaction opposite to the intuitive one.