Ether, Bitcoin open Asia trading week flat as ETH ETF decision, Nvidia earnings loom

The crypto market was listless early Monday, with Bitcoin (BTC), the biggest digital asset market by value, trading flat at $67,156 and ether (ETH) changing hands at $3,127, according to CoinDesk Indices data.

The consolidation follows a week of bullish action triggered by renewed optimism about a U.S. rate cut and the rally in stocks.

Things could soon get busier again with the first decisions for ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) due. The Securities and Exchange Commission is set to weigh in on VanEck's ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) on May 23 and the Ark/21 Shares one on May 24, as well as Nvidia earnings.

March Zheng, managing partner of Bizantine Capital, told CoinDesk in an interview that while the market has priced near the certainty of a rejection, there are still some reasons to be optimistic.

"There are reasons to believe that the report will contain silver linings for the delay, which should signal an eventual approval of Ethereum in the next year," Zheng said. "The removal of staking prepositions by filers reclassifies underlying ETH as commodities supported by the CFTC and can pave a major pathway going forward."

Polymarket currently gives a 10% chance of an ether ETF being approved by May 31, a 13% chance of approval by June 30, and a 28% chance of approval this year.

Recently, Coinbase analyst David Han wrote that the market may be "underestimating the timing and odds of a potential approval."

Zheng argued that positive ETH ETF news might also boost trading sentiments for BASE, a Layer-2 network, whose native token's price has dropped by nearly 25% in the last two weeks.

Traders are also going to be eyeing Nvidia's earnings, scheduled for Wednesday.

Bitcoin trades strongly in correlation with Nvidia, as do Artificial intelligence-themed tokens, which surged in February as the chip designer reported better-than-expected earnings.

The direct correlation between Nvidia and ether market movement isn't as strong as it once was during the mining boom. Still, the rising tide of bitcoin and AI tokens – should Nvidia's earnings remain strong – will likely lift all boats.