Bitcoin, Ether and most top ten non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies dropped Friday morning in Asia. At a touch above US$26,000, Bitcoin has traced back most of the gains triggered by Tuesday’s favorable U.S. court ruling for Grayscale Investments in its Bitcoin ETF case against the SEC. Equity futures in the U.S. were little changed following a mixed session Thursday. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index moved higher as consumers continue to spend. Investors expect today’s U.S. payroll report for August to shed more light on coming interest rate policy.
Cryptos down as SEC delays more ETF decisions
Bitcoin dropped 4.42% over the last 24 hours to US$26,042.84 as of 07:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. The token is down 0.26% for the week, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Bitcoin’s value fell along with other cryptocurrencies after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday it will delay seven spot Bitcoin exchange traded fund applications until October. Some of the world’s largest asset managers including BlackRock, WisdomTree, and VanEck are among those waiting on the SEC for ETF approval.
“The move is very clear; the pump we had from Grayscale-SEC news is now faded,” Benjamin Stani, director of business development at Hong Kong-based digital asset broker Matrixport, said in a text message.
The market, Stani added, “was hoping that after Grayscale, there [would be] a path forward and had some analysts up the probability of a spot ETF approval before the year-end — but it looks like not so soon.”
Ether dipped 3.15% to US$1,648.76 over the past 24 hours for a weekly loss of 0.33%.
Ether market data shows the token is on track to form a so-called “death cross” — a sign of the bearish outlook in the ether options market. The cross, which occurs when the short-term average falls below the long-term trend, is generally a sign of further losses ahead. Currently, the short-term 50-day average stands at 1808.3, while the 200-day average is at 1802.9, according to TradingView.
Most other top ten non-stablecoin cryptos posted losses, with Solana’s SOL leading the losers. It dipped 5.07% to US$19.81, its lowest level in over six weeks. On Monday, Clockwork — a Solana-based automation network for smart contracts — shut down. Its founder Nick Garfield said he saw “limited commercial upside” in the project.
Meanwhile, a U.S. court has dismissed a class action lawsuit filed against a group of five companies including decentralized trading platform Uniswap Labs. Plaintiffs claimed they were victims of a rugpull involving scam tokens on the Uniswap cryptocurrency exchange and are entitled to compensation.
The court ruled that the defendants are not responsible for those losses. Presiding Judge Katherine Polk Failla said “due to the Protocol’s decentralized nature, the identities of the scam token issuers are basically unknown and unknowable.”
Crypto commentators interpret the ruling as a victory for decentralized finance with wide reaching implications for the industry.
“I believe that what happened in the case against Uniswap Labs could be the first steps in clarifying the legal and regulatory environment for DeFi applications and could make investors’ concerns about sudden lawsuits and actions by regulators less and make them more predictable,” wrote Samer Hasn, market analyst for online brokerage XS.com.
“On the other hand, this measure, and other similar possible measures, if taken in the future, may restrict investors’ confidence in these applications due to the inability to regulate them and enforce the law on them,” Hasn added.
The total crypto market capitalization fell 3.46% to US$1.05 trillion, while trading volume gained 16.61% to US$37.31 billion.
(Updates to add quotes from Benjamin Stani)
