After a Monday morning rally that saw the price of Bitcoin shoot past $31,000<\/a>, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap got a second wind hours later, surpassing $34,000 later in the day, according to data from CoinGecko<\/a>.<\/p>\n The new benchmark set a record high for 2023, reaching values not seen since last May, triggered a torrent of BTC shorts, leading to $114 million in liquidation in the last hour\u2014and $145 million in total across crypto assets, according to analytics firm CoinGlass<\/a>.<\/p>\n On leading crypto exchange Coinbase, BTC was trading at a premium closer to $35,000.<\/p>\n The pair of rallies to start the week have been attributed to building anticipation over the pending approval of Bitcoin spot ETF applications by the Securities and Exchange Commission.<\/p>\n Earlier today, a Washington, D.C. judge officially ordered the SEC to take another look<\/a> at a long-delayed and litigated spot Bitcoin ETF application from Grayscale, after the regulatory agency failed to respond to an earlier court inquiry.<\/p>\n Also today, global investment giant BlackRock updated its own application to note that it had started to take the preliminary steps needed<\/a> to launch its Bitcoin spot ETF, including allocating funds and securing a ticker symbol. The moves don’t guarantee an approval is coming, but they suggest confidence the SEC will eventually do so.<\/p>\n![\"Coinglass](\"https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:1536:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Coinglass-Bitcoin-Shorts-2023-10-23.png@webp\")
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