The price of major cryptocurrencies headed north on Friday morning continuing an upward trend following a spate of institutional interest in the asset class.

The good mood for both bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ether (ETH-USD) came following asset manager Fidelity's refiling for a bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF), dubbed the Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust. The filing had previously been rejected by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2022.

Fidelity followed a number of other funds and asset managers to file, including Blackrock's attempt at a spot bitcoin ETF, alongside Invesco and WisdomTree. The Block first reported Fidelity's filing was on the cards.

Bitcoin's price headed up more than 1% to $30,760. Earlier it had peaked at around $31,200, the highest level in about a week — it is set for a monthly gain of around 8%. Ether was up 1.6% to $1,880 having earlier trended above $1,900.

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Spot bitcoin ETFs have been in the offing for years, and have been described as potentially game changing for the crypto market. They give investors exposure to the market without actually having to touch the asset itself.

Previously, applications have been denied by the US market regulator due to a lack of measures taken by the listing exchange to make sure they can detect and stop manipulative trading.

While bitcoin and ether clocked quarterly gains, smaller tokens took a hammering as regulatory scrutiny on unregistered securities ramps up by the SEC. The gap between these tokens and bitcoin, which is seen as a commodity, has become increasingly pronounced over the last year.

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