Bitcoin, Ether, Other Cryptos Fall as SEC Waves a Big Stick; Dogecoin gains; US stock futures flat

by Arthur · April 17, 2023

Bitcoin fell in trading on Tuesday morning in Asia, but held above $29,000. Ether and most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies fell as concerns about the regulatory crackdown by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) spread after it sued crypto exchange Bittrex on Monday. Despite the concern, Dogecoin, Polkadot and Litecoin gained. U.S. stock futures traded flat in Asia after Wall Street edged higher on Monday. China’s first-quarter GDP on Tuesday beat expectations with growth of 4.5% on the year, compared with forecasts for a 4% rise, but stock markets in the region showed little response.

See related article: US SEC Investigates Crypto Exchange Bittrex for Potential Rule Violation: WSJ

Fast facts

Bitcoin fell 1.61% to US$29,376 in the 24 hours to 09:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, having lost 1.84% in the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Ether fell 0.38% to $2,074 but is up 8% on the week after a flurry of buying related to the Ethereum blockchain upgrade last Wednesday to enable withdrawals of staked Ether.
Shrugging off the general bear market, Dogecoin rallied 2.96% to $0.0913 and added 7.61% for the week. Sentiment around the memecoin received a boost when Twitter – led by Dogecoin fan Elon Musk – officially enabled stock and cryptocurrency trading on the platform on Monday in a partnership with multi-asset investment firm eToro.
Solana fell 2.02% to $24.41, but maintains a 16.56% gain for the week. US-based digital currency asset manager Grayscale Investments on Monday opened the Grayscale Solana Trust for public trading on the OTC Markets under the symbol: GSOL. The Trust offers investors exposure to the price movement of Solana without holding the asset directly.
The crypto market was hit by renewed regulatory concerns, as the US SEC accused Bittrex and its co-founder William Shihara of violating securities laws. Other crypto firms including Kraken, Coinbase, Paxos and Binance have also been targeted by US regulators this year.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler will speak before Congress Tuesday on his approach to digital asset regulation. US Representative Warren Davidson said The SEC needs to be restructured and is reported to be planning legislation that would include removing Gensler from the role of chairman.
SEC member Hester Peirce on Friday criticized the agency’s proposal to expand the definition of an “exchange” to include decentralized platforms that trade cryptocurrencies, calling it an attempt to hinder the development of new technology in a statement titled “Rendering Innovation Kaput. “
The total crypto market capitalization fell 1.03% in the last 24 hours to $1.25 trillion. The total trading volume in the last 24 hours rose 13.65% to 44.43 billion USD.
In the NFT market, the Forkast 500 NFT index rose 0.11% to 4,052.59 in the 24 hours to 09:00 in Hong Kong, up 2.84% for the week. The index is a proxy measure of the performance of the global NFT market and includes 500 eligible smart contracts on a given day. It is managed by CryptoSlam, a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast.Labs umbrella.
US stock futures traded flat at 09.00 in Hong Kong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.03 percent. S&P 500 futures were 0.05% lower. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.12 percent.
The three U.S. stock indexes rose on Monday on mixed economic data and generally better-than-expected bank earnings, after posting gains in the past week. Equity investors have several earnings reports this week — Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Tesla, IBM and Netflix — to get a sense of the state of the U.S. economy and how that could affect the Federal Reserve’s policy to raise interest rates.
US interest rates are currently between 4.75% to 5%, the highest since June 2006. Analysts at CME Group now see a 15.6% chance that the Fed will leave rates unchanged at its next meeting on May 3, while 84 .4% predict a 25 basis point rate hike, up from 82.1% on Monday.