The 10th of January marked the one-year anniversary of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF).
Within the year, bitcoin ETFs welcomed more than US$50 billion in inflows, with 47 active cryptocurrency ETF filings now in place across 16 distinct asset categories, Binance Australia said in a statement on Thursday.
Although by the time the SEC granted its green light, bitcoin ETFs had been available on Australia exchanges for some time, their approval by the SEC held symbolic significance in Australia.
James Quinn-Kumar, director of community management at Binance Australia, explained that the approval of bitcoin ETFs in the world’s largest economy propelled cryptocurrencies into mainstream portfolios, accelerating institutional adoption.
In fact, AMP Super late last year confirmed a modest allocation to bitcoin, acknowledging that the digital coin is “too big to ignore”.
Speaking to InvestorDaily in December, Stuart Eliot, AMP’s head of portfolio management, clarified that after “testing and careful consideration by our investment team and committee”, the company decided to include “a small and risk-controlled position” in digital assets within its Dynamic Asset Allocation program in early 2024.
The news was viewed as monumental for the industry, given the fund was the first of its kind to announce its backing of the digital coin often referred to as speculative by its peers.
A transformative year
According to Quinn-Kumar, “2025 is set to be another transformative year for the industry”.
Notably, last month, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish the Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, tasked with developing a federal regulatory framework governing digital assets.
Discussing the effects of President Trump’s cryptocurrency-related announcements, Quinn-Kumar said: “The crypto industry has long navigated a regulatory patchwork that limited innovation and drove capital and talent offshore.”
For markets like Australia, market experts agree that these trends are particularly relevant.
“The US has a major role to play in shaping global crypto policy, and clear, innovation-friendly regulation would provide much-needed certainty, not just for American companies, but for the entire industry,” Quinn-Kumar added.
In the year since the SEC’s bitcoin ETF approval, the “memecoin phenomenon” has also taken hold, with over 37 million new tokens launched last month alone.
“The memecoin phenomenon has certainly captured global attention, especially with the launch of $TRUMP,” the director said.
“The local pick-up in trading demonstrates how political narratives can influence market sentiment, even overseas. The influence of Trump’s administration on multiple aspects of the cryptocurrency sector in just the first three months sets the stage for what could be a very eventful next four years.”
The cryptocurrency market started 2025 with strong momentum, reaching a total market capitalisation of US$3.76 trillion in January, and recovering from December’s slight correction.
Bitcoin led the way, rising 11.7 per cent amid pro-cryptocurrency policies from the newly inaugurated US administration and growing speculation about its potential inclusion in central bank reserves.
However, that momentum was disrupted by DeepSeek, an emerging AI model in China, which overtook ChatGPT as the most downloaded app, triggering a 2 per cent decline in both cryptocurrency and US equity markets. Trump’s tariff announcements added to the volatility.
“This volatility has continued into February amid concerns over potential US tariff policies impacting risk assets globally,” Binance said.
On Thursday afternoon, bitcoin was trading at around $97,000.
Notably, closer to home, cryptocurrency ETFs were the poorest performers over the past week, according to new data from Global X, as a result of a broader pivot away from risk assets.
“While Trump’s tariffs do not directly impact cryptocurrencies, investors were concerned about the geopolitical and macro uncertainty they may cause,” the fund manager said.
The rapid decline in the price of cryptocurrency also wiped out US$2.2 billion in leveraged positions, Global X underscored, culminating in a US$400 billion sell-off from the total cryptocurrency market cap.
In a post on his X profile earlier this month, Chris Weston from Pepperstone explained that despite anticipating it, the market was unprepared for the cryptocurrency sell-off.
“Even though we knew it was going to come, I think people weren’t really prepared for it,” the head of research said.
“Volatility [is] alive as people try and really understand the retaliation metrics that have been playing through and where this ends, and how we price risk in this scenario.”
