As for the ETF, a lot of experts believe it will be approved in Janus and that's like 2 months from now. It's not a very long time so people who bought Bitcoin for that reason won't want to sell it off when they could hold on for 2-3 more months and see what happens.
It might not only be the halving, I reckon. People are buying because they are also anticipating the approval of Blackrock's ETF application which I speculate might the first to be approved. The date for Blockrock's final deadline will be on March 15, 2024. After this first approval, all of the applications after this will be approved and the people who are unconvinced that it is a bull market will be convinced hehehehee.
Whether halving or ETF, there is no guarantee that bitcoin will never drop in price again, this thinking seems too naive for a market as volatile as bitcoin. Don't forget that this is not just a game for retail investors like us, we also have market makers, whales...a lot of big guys in the market and they can manipulate market according to their wishes. Therefore, do not be too subjective and think that increased demand for bitcoin means the price will always increase, not decrease. Bitcoin can go up and down whenever it wants without any news affecting it, and sometimes news is just a way to hide their manipulation from us.
i was reading it weeks ago that the deadline was in Jan 2024. and now it's March 15. it looks like they wanted the approval to be close to the halving date.
i'm also seeing there will be a last bear strings that are to be pulled before going up. but most probably not going below $30k and if i am going to prepare for this dump, i would save my USDT ready on the exchange to wait for it to happen. but will also regret it if it doesn't happen.