(Bloomberg) -- Ether surged, leading a rally in digital assets, amid growing speculation that opposition is easing among regulators toward one or more exchange-traded funds that invest directly in the second-biggest cryptocurrency.

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Ether rose as much as 12% to about $3,448 as of 3:51 p.m. in New York. Bitcoin also extended gains, climbing 5% to $69,527.

The native token of the Ethereum blockchain extended gains after Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said he and his colleague James Seyffart had increased the estimated probability that a spot-Ether ETF gets approved to 75% from 25%.

Traders and analysts on social media “are now speculating that the SEC might be more likely to lean toward potential approval, and traders are now scrambling to put on positions since many had completely written off even the remote possibility of an approval,” said Chris Newhouse, a decentralized-finance analyst at Cumberland Labs.

“Massive spikes in volume and demand for both spot and leveraged positions are apparent in the markets and the outperformance in ETH compared to BTC points to the potential ETH ETF catalyst as a primary driver.”

Read: Fund Managers Brace for SEC Rejection of Ether-ETF Applications

After months of silence, the US Securities and Exchange Commission is poised to announce a decision on at least one application for an ETF that invests directly in Ether by May 23. Some fund companies expect a rejection because their private dialog with the SEC hasn’t been as robust as it had been prior to the approval of spot-Bitcoin ETFs in January, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named discussing private conversations.

Despite the rally on Monday, not every trader was convinced that the SEC is warming up to an Ether ETF.

“FalconX’s derivatives desk has seen the majority of our counterparties fade the move with the expectation that the SEC will move slower than the markets are anticipating,” said Ravi Doshi, head of markets at FalconX.

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