Bitcoin (BTC) returned to crush the week's four-month highs on Oct. viii, climbing $2,000 in 2 hours.

BTC/USD i-hr candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

BTC's price beats Wed's loftier

Information from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting just over $56,150 on Bitstamp in a fresh show of bullish momentum.

Midweek's dramatic uptick had topped out at $55,800, this remaining the level to trounce as the pair and so spent Thursday consolidating.

Among anticipation of fresh upside from traders, talk beyond price action continued to focus on the likelihood of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval from United States regulator — and its implications.

As Cointelegraph reported, conviction is high that a futures-backed Bitcoin ETF will get the become-ahead this month, if not a traditional spot-based production.

Equally has been the instance throughout the years-long boxing to get such an approval, however, critics proceed to argue that an ETF could ultimately cause more harm than good to Bitcoin. In particular, futures came in for scrutiny this week.

"Few understand this bitcoin ETF if approved would accept futures as underlying," macro analyst Alex Krüger explained in a Twitter thread.

"Futures are commonly in potent contango (i.e. futures > spot), and so at rollover the ETF would *sell depression to purchase high*, and suffer Contango Bleed. Assets with potent contango drain tendency lower."

Krüger added that a spot-based ETF would be the only option attractive to large-volume institutional clients, equally the futures-based alternative carries excessive gamble.

Mixed views on ETF benefits

Annotator Willy Woo, meanwhile, underlined the overall pros and cons of both kinds of ETF.

Related: Price spike: Are whales front-running the approval of a Bitcoin futures ETF?

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the fortunes of which commentators argue are already beingness impacted by the prospective ETF blessing, connected to see negative share price relative to spot, this passing -17% Thursday.

The firm's CEO, Michael Sonnenshein, has reiterated plans to convert potentially every fund to an ETF in the future.