Bitcoin, Ether, Other Crypto Falls as SEC Waves Big Stick; Dogecoin wins; Stable U.S. Stock Futures

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Bitcoin fell in Tuesday morning trading in Asia but held above the $29,000 mark. Ether and most of the other top 10 unstable cryptocurrencies plunged amid fears that a regulatory crackdown from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could spread after it sued crypto exchange Bittrex Monday. Despite the concern, Dogecoin, Polkadot and Litecoin gained. U.S. stock futures traded flat in Asia after Wall Street rallied on Monday. China’s first-quarter GDP released on Tuesday beat expectations with year-on-year growth of 4.5%, against forecasts for a 4% gain, but stock markets in the region showed little response.

See Related Article: US SEC Investigating Crypto Exchange Bittrex for Potential Regulatory Violation: WSJ

Fast facts

Bitcoin fell 1.61% to $29,376 in the 24 hours to 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, posting a loss of 1.84% over the past seven days, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Ether fell 0.38% to US$2,074, but was up 8% on the week following a series of buys related to the Ethereum blockchain upgrade last Wednesday to enable the withdrawal of the Ethereum. Ether staked.

Dogecoin shrugged off the overall bear market, gaining 2.96% to US$0.0913 and adding 7.61% for the week. Sentiment around the memecoin grew as Twitter, led by Dogecoin fan Elon Musk, officially enabled stock and cryptocurrency trading on the platform on Monday as part of a partnership with the multi-asset investment company eToro.

Solana fell 2.02% to US$24.41 but holds a 16.56% gain for the week. US-based digital currency asset manager Grayscale Investments opened Grayscale Solana Trust for public trading on OTC markets on Monday under the symbol: GSOL. The Trust provides investors with exposure to Solana’s price movement without holding the asset directly.

The crypto market has been hit by new regulatory concerns, with the US SEC charging Bittrex and its co-founder William Shihara with violating securities laws. Other crypto companies, including Kraken, Coinbase, Paxos and Binance, have also been targeted by US regulators this year.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler will speak to Congress on Tuesday on his approach to digital asset regulation. U.S. Representative Warren Davidson said the SEC needed to be restructured and would be planning legislation that would include Gensler’s removal from his role as chairman.

On Friday, SEC member Hester Peirce criticized her agencies’ proposal to extend the definition of an exchange to decentralized platforms that trade cryptocurrencies, calling it an effort to thwart the development of new technologies. in a statement titled Rendering Innovation Kaput.

The total crypto market capitalization fell 1.03% in the past 24 hours to US$1.25 trillion. Total trading volume in the past 24 hours increased by 13.65% to $44.43 billion.

In the NFT market, the Forkast 500 NFT index edged up 0.11% to 4,052.59 in the 24 hours to 09:00 in Hong Kong, a gain of 2.84% for the week. The index is an indirect measure of global NFT market performance and includes 500 eligible smart contracts every day. It is operated by CryptoSlam, a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast.Labs umbrella.

US stock futures traded at 09:00 in Hong Kong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.03%. S&P 500 futures contracts edged down 0.05%. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.12%.

All three U.S. stock indexes edged higher on Monday on mixed economic data and generally better-than-expected bank profits, after posting gains last week. Equity investors have more earnings reports this week Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Tesla, IBM and Netflix for a gauge of the state of the US economy and how it may influence Federal Reserve policy on the increase in interest rates.

US interest rates are currently between 4.75% and 5%, the highest since June 2006. CME Group analysts now see a 15.6% chance that the Fed will leave rates unchanged in its next meeting on May 3, while 84.4% expect a 25-basis point rate hike, down from 82.1% on Monday.

See related article: US House Financial Services Committee Releases Stablecoin Bill for Wednesday Hearing

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