Finance analysts have resumed bullish pronouncements that pending spot Bitcoin ETF applications may soon receive approval in spite of yesterday’s short-lived BTC flash crash.

On Jan 3, Fox Business published a report asserting that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s Division of Trading Markets met with official representing the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and Chicago Board Options Exchange — major venues where the proposed spot Bitcoin ETFs would trade. The report cited anonymous sources representing the exchanges.

“Sources close to the proceedings say the SEC could begin notifying issuers of approval on Friday with trading beginning as early as next week,” the report said. The report also follows several rounds of meetings between spot Bitcoin ETF applicants and the SEC last month.

Scott Johnsson, a finance lawyer and general partner at Van Buren Capital, responded by tweeting that the SEC is unlikely to expend its resources on the meetings if it plans to deny the ETF applications. “If you intend to deny, you just deny,” Johnsson said.

Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst, also tweeted that the SEC would be unlikely to hold said meeting if it was planning to deny or delay the pending cohort of Bitcoin ETF applicants. Balchunas cited a recent spate of updated SEC filings from applicants as further evidence their approval is fast approaching.

James Seyffart, a fellow Bloomberg analyst, chimed in that he still expects the SEC to issue spot Bitcoin ETF approvals between Jan. 8 and Jan. 10.

Craig Salm, the chief legal officer Grayscale, a front-running spot Bitcoin ETF applicant, further stoked expectations by tweeting “just filling out some forms” on Jan. 4.

The price of BTC is up 2.6% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

Flash crash

The bullish speculation comes after a violent flash crash wracked the Bitcoin and crypto markets yesterday, with $100B wiped from the combined crypto capitalization as leading assets shed 6% of their value.

The sharp sell-off followed the publication of a research report from Matrixport claiming that the pending spot Bitcoin ETFs are likely to be rejected, however, most analysts are attributing the pull back to excessive leverage getting flushed from the crypto markets.

A prediction market for whether a spot Bitcoin ETF will receive SEC approval by Jan. 15 hosted by Polymarket shows volatile sentiment among traders, with odds dipping to an implied likelihood of 70% amid the crash after tagging a high of 89% on Jan. 3. While the implied probability rebounded to 86% earlier today, the figure has since slumped to 79%.