Is a Bitcoin ETF approval in the works?

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) surged past $37,000 early Thursday, its highest level in 18 months. The cryptocurrency's gains come amid speculation that the SEC may finally approve a spot bitcoin ETF.

Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Jared Blikre analyzes the factors behind bitcoin's rise, observing patterns in other cryptocurrencies as the digital asset market aims to stage a recovery from recent crashes.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: Well, Bitcoin is climbing higher today, hitting its highest level that we've seen in about 18 months, sitting just shy of 37,000 on renewed hopes of a spot Bitcoin ETF approval. Yahoo Finance's Jared Blikre standing by on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with the latest. Jared.

JARED BLIKRE: Yes, 37,000, really impressive. Let's go to the Wi-Fi interactive and talk about this Grayscale Bitcoin, which is about to become an ETF. The SEC lost that court case and there are a bunch of other spot ETFs-- spot Bitcoin ETFs that are just waiting to come into the market from BlackRock and a bunch of different ETF providers. So lots of hype surrounding that.

And if we take a look at the chart, you can see 37,500 and change here. We have really accelerated off of this base here. So not much was happening for a few months. And then, suddenly, we got what some people are calling a God candle that would be right here. And now, we're clearing resistance. 35,000 was a big number. Now we're up to 37,000.

Let me just show you a three-year chart so we can see where some of the price memory is. We're really in the thick of it right now at the lower end down here. But you can see tons of price memory all the way up to about 65,000-70,000. So the short story is there's a long way to go.

But, if Bitcoin is emerging finally from this crypto winter then there's lots of enthusiasm behind it, and perhaps we can clear a lot of these major hurdles. It was only yesterday, I was talking about the FTC's, perhaps, rising from the ashes, there are a number of potential suitors there. Three of which are leading the negotiations. One of which is headed by Tom Farley, who used to be the President of the New York Stock Exchange right here.

But back to the Wi-Fi interactive. Let me just show you what's happened over the last three days so you can really appreciate some of the outsized move that we've seen from some of the smaller tokens. FTT token. That's up 75%.

Let me show you a one year chart. And it kind of looks like a sinusoidal pattern here. Periodic bouts of enthusiasm. I guess not worried that it's going to go to zero at least. We've seen this play out over the last year.

But if I put a three-year chart, you can really see the damage that was done to this token. It's basically down over 90% over the last two years. There you go, 96%-97%. All told here. It's looking good for the risk market it's not just Bitcoin and crypto, which is being seeing a lot of love.

Let me go to some of our leading markets. If we go over the last three days. Actually, let me pull it up for the last seven that's going to take us back to, I believe, last Wednesday's Fed announcement, which really started the risk engine juice. ARK Invest is up 17.6%.

Cannabis up 12%. Gambling up 10%. So this is really all about risk on. And Crypto is just kind of participating, although, it admittedly does have its own fundamentals here, guys.