The price of Bitcoin (BTC) broke through the $35,000 mark for the first time since May 2022, marking a staggering gain in the past 24 hours.

The price of Bitcoin suddenly spiked upward on Oct. 23, with BTC gaining more than 10% from $31,000 to over $34,000.

Less than two hours after breaking $34,000, Bitcoin reached as high as $35,300, according to data from TradingView. Bitcoin is currently changing hands for a price of $34,550.

The sudden uptick in price for Bitcoin comes amid a fresh wave of interest in upcoming spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) approvals and a significant increase in overall trading volumes across spot markets.

The surge also came amid developments relating to BlackRock’s proposed spot Bitcoin ETF.

On Oct. 23, an X (formerly known as Twitter) post from analyst Scott Johnson pointed to two new pieces of information that could hint that a spot Bitcoin ETF approval is getting closer for the investment giant.

Johnson pointed out that BlackRock had secured a specific “CUSIP” license and may soon begin the process of “seeding” its spot ETF product with cash as early as this month. 

In response to the post, senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that seeding an ETF is “typically not a lot of money” and would be just enough to get an ETF going; however, he admitted that it is overall a good sign and marks “another step in the process of launching.”

Note: Seeding is typically not a lot of money just enough to get ETF going. So I wouldn't read this as 'omg Blackrock is buying a ton of bitcoin' at all but more the fact they doing it and disclosing it shows another step in the process of launching.

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 23, 2023

The sudden surge in price also came with a significant growth in Bitcoin’s spot trading volume. At the time of publication, spot trading volume had surged to more than $35 billion over the past 24 hours, a gain of 241% in the same time period, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

While Bitcoin enjoyed the largest price impulse, the general tide of upward price momentum lifted other boats as well, with Ethereum’s native currency, Ether (ETH), growing 7%, while Solana’s SOL (SOL) gained a whopping 11%. Additionally, Dogecoin (DOGE) was up 8%, while Cardano (ADA) lagged slightly with a 5% gain.

Related: BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF now listed on Nasdaq trade clearing firm — Bloomberg analyst

Crypto market commentators and community members were seemingly left dumbfounded by the sudden move upward — with independent journalist Autism Capital asking their 237,000 followers, “What the heck just happened?” 

Wait, what the heck just happened? pic.twitter.com/JFX0pr9fFI

— Autism Capital (@AutismCapital) October 23, 2023

Zooming out from the immediate price action, there seemed to be a favorable setup for the sudden growth in the price of cryptocurrencies, with CoinShares data showing that digital asset investment products saw a fourth consecutive week of inflows.

Update (Oct. 24, 3:44am UTC): This article has been updated to include Bitcoin reaching a price of $35,300 in the hours following the rise to $34,000. 

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