Bitcoin surged above $31,000 for the first time since July as a US federal appeals court made final a ruling that effectively clears the way for the issuance of an exchange-traded fund that invests directly in the cryptocurrency.

The mandate puts into effect the court’s ruling in August, when it overturned the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rejection of Grayscale Investments LLC’s proposal to convert its trust into an ETF. Judge Neomi Rao had called the SEC’s decision “arbitrary and capricious” because the regulator failed to explain why it approved similar products. The SEC had argued that an ETF based on Bitcoin lacked adequate oversight to detect fraud. The move sends the matter back to the SEC.