Here’s what happened in crypto today

Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
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Marathon Digital has rocketed to the top of the U.S. stock charts in trading volume just weeks ahead of an anticipated Bitcoin ETF approval. MicroStrategy has increased its Bitcoin 
BTC
$43,013

 holdings by an additional 14,620 coins and ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood expects some investors to “sell on the news” of spot Bitcoin ETF approval in the short term.Marathon Digital becomes most traded stock of the day, $327M in volume

Trading volumes for Bitcoin 
BTC
$43,013
 miner Marathon Digital stocks have topped the charts for U.S. mid and large-cap stocks just weeks ahead of an anticipated approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).Over the last 24 hours, the publicly traded firm has seen more than 105 million shares worth of trading volume, beating the blue-chip stocks including Tesla, Apple, and Amazon, according to Yahoo Finance market data.
Shares in Marathon Digital are the most traded in the last 24 hours. Source: Yahoo Finance
The uptick in trading activity on Bitcoin mining stocks comes amid a renewed push from mining firms to expand their operations ahead of an expected approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in early January as well as the Bitcoin halving in April.
While Bitcoin has enjoyed outsized growth throughout 2023 — up more than 163% from the beginning of this year — shares in Bitcoin miners have vastly outperformed that of the market-leading cryptocurrency.
Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms have posted a whopping respective gains of 767% and 452% year-to-date, according to data from TradingView.

Saylor adds to MicroStrategy's massive Bitcoin bags

Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy acquired an additional 14,620 BTC between Nov. 20 and Dec. 26, the company announced in a regulatory filing with the SEC.
The cumulative price of the newly acquired Bitcoin was $615.7 million, or $42,110 per coin. MicroStrategy has now amassed a staggering 189,150 BTC, making it one of the world's largest Bitcoin whales. 
MicroStrategy has made several massive BTC purchases in recent months, including 16,130 BTC in November, 6,067 between September and November, and 12,333 BTC in June.
MicroStrategy co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor has been hyper bullish on Bitcoin since at least 2020, when the firm first added BTC to its balance sheet. As Cointelegrpah reported, the company's stock, MSTR, is viewed by many as a Bitcoin proxy play. MSTR is up more than 350% this year.

ARK’s Cathie Wood sees short-term effect of spot Bitcoin ETF as ‘sell on news’

Growing anticipation around the potential approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could negatively impact the BTC price in the short term, according to ARK Invest CEO.
Cathie Wood, founder, CEO and chief investment officer of ARK, believes that some investors are likely to “sell on the news” once a spot Bitcoin ETF is approved by securities regulators in the United States.
Wood expects that some investors will not want to miss the opportunity of taking some profits as there has been a “big anticipatory move” based on the expectation of potential approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF, she said in an interview with Yahoo Finance on Dec. 26. The ARK CEO stated:

“Those who have been moving in and enjoying some nice profits, will probably ‘sell on the news’. That’s an expression that traders use, so you anticipate the event, beat up the price and then sell on the news.”

While the short-term impact of potential spot Bitcoin ETF approval could be associated with some investors selling, the long term perspective is promising and is more important, according to Wood.
“That would be very short-term because what we think is going to happen here is that the SEC is going to be giving the spot Bitcoin ETF the green light for institutional investors to participate,” the investor stated.