Markets

As US commodities regulator CFTC calls for swift action on cryptocurrencies, senators are still struggling

Published

9 months ago

10 July, 2024

As US commodities regulator CFTC calls for swift action on cryptocurrencies, senators are still struggling

While Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said her latest legislative proposal to oversee cryptocurrency markets is headed to members of her panel this week, the committee’s top Republican said his meetings with the digital asset industry indicate that these companies still don’t like what they’re seeing.

“The frank and honest feedback we’ve received from these discussions does not lead me to believe that the level of support needed for this proposal to succeed currently exists among stakeholders, and people are working very hard to try to correct that,” Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), the top Republican on the panel, said in a statement. a hearing on Wednesday on the digital asset sector.

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chief Rostin Behnam echoed sentiments in his testimony that generally align with the view of crypto advocates: Congress has failed to produce a regulatory response to cryptocurrencies, which is hurting investors and putting the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage.

He said what “worried me most” about watching the growth of digital assets was the lack of action from Congress.

“I believe the most important thing I have done, and continue to do, is advocate for this agency to fill the regulatory gap,” Behnam told senators. “Congress must act quickly to ensure that regulators like the CFTC provide basic customer protections that are essential to U.S. financial markets.”

The senators who lead the Agriculture Committee, which oversees the CFTC, I worked for years in its own crypto legislation that would focus — more narrowly than other efforts — on granting the regulator authority to police spot trading in digital commodities. That category, which includes bitcoin (BTC) and which Behnam and others argue also includes Ethereum’s ether (ETH)represents the majority of cryptocurrency trading activity.

However, details of a current effort led by Stabenow have not officially emerged, and she indicated at the hearing that she hopes to share specific legislative language with the other panel members by the end of the week.

“We cannot afford to wait any longer to regulate these assets,” she told the hearing. “The time to act is now.”

Boozman called the hearing “a good start,” suggesting that his stated intention to continue working with Stabenow on new legislation is nowhere near the finish line.

The US House of Representatives has moved far ahead of the Senate in crypto legislative progress, having passed a far-reaching bill on market structure with a large bipartisan majority. But the industry has encountered more difficulties in the Senate, where prominent members such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) have criticized the dangers cryptocurrency poses to consumers. Brown’s Senate Banking Committee has so far failed to advance legislation, despite years of discussion on the topic.

“Some in this city are less interested in protecting consumers and investors than others,” Brown said at Wednesday’s hearing.

There is little time left in this session of Congress to address complex regulatory legislation, and the November elections will draw even more attention from lawmakers as that date approaches.

Behnam argued that not instituting federal rules on cryptocurrencies will not scare away investors.

“I do not believe that inaction will end public interest in digital assets; it will only result in greater risk for our financial markets and investors,” he said.

The CFTC chairman argued that any legislation should define how his agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will determine what is a digital commodity and what is a security. But Boozman said during the hearing that the committee should not go beyond its jurisdiction at the CFTC and into the workings of other regulators “that are not under our authority,” such as the SEC, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.

The CFTC chief also said his agency’s current powers, which are largely limited to enforcement, are too reactive to be a useful deterrent to bad behavior in the industry.

“The goal of any comprehensive legislation on this is to prevent further fraud before it occurs and to reduce regulation through enforcement,” Christopher LaVigne, a partner at the law firm Withers, said in an email. “It was interesting to hear Chairman Behnam state his belief that enforcement of existing rules does not have the same deterrent effect that a comprehensive regulatory regime would have. It is hard to imagine [SEC] President [Gary] Gensler making such an admission.”

UPDATE (July 10, 2024, 16:32 UTC): Adds comment from a Withers attorney.

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Markets

Crypto Markets Rebound as Spot Bitcoin ETFs Attract Massive Inflows

Published

9 months ago

17 July, 2024

FinCrypt Staff

Crypto Markets Rebound Ahead of Early Ethereum ETF Approval

This week saw $722 million worth of Bitcoin spot ETF inflows, including the largest daily inflow in a month.

Cryptocurrency markets rallied on Wednesday, driven by inflows into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is up 3% over the past 24 hours to last change hands at $65,200, according to CoinGecko. Ethereum (ETH) is up 2% and is trading at $3,471. Solana (SUN) and Polkadot (POINT) increased by 4%.

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw $422 million in daily inflows on Tuesday, the highest in the past 30 days, according to Far side data, . The all-time record for a single day was $1.05 billion on March 12.

Among Tuesday’s top contributors, BlackRock’s IBIT led with $260 million in inflows, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC with $61 million. This week has already seen more than $722 million in inflows.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, Worldcoin (WLD) led with a 28% increase, followed by Helium (HNT) with 20% and Lido DAO (LDO) with 15%.

Worldcoin, a decentralized identity project led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, announced is extending the lockups for early investors and team members. This means that tokens will be gradually released through 2029, instead of the original 2027 plan. Token unlocks are generally seen as a negative because they increase supply and early investors can sell their tokens for profit.

Meanwhile, XRP, the token of the XRP Ledger network, jumped 8% after the CME and CF benchmarks introduced new indices and reference rates for XRP.

U.S. stocks faced a downturn on Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average both fell 2%.

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Markets

Altcoins on the cusp of a major breakout – WLD, AR, and INJ prices could surge by 20% in the coming days

Published

9 months ago

17 July, 2024

FinCrypt Staff

Altcoins on the cusp of a major breakout – WLD, AR, and INJ prices could surge by 20% in the coming days

Crypto markets appear to have been taken over by the bulls as major tokens have surged above their crucial resistance zone. Bitcoin surged above $65,000 while Ethereum was above $3,500, and XRP, which had remained passive for quite some time, surged over 40% in the past few days to hit $0.6. The uptrend has been captured in most altcoins, with Worldcoin (WLD), Arweave (AR), and Injective (INJ) leading the rally. Here’s what to expect for these tokens in the coming days.

Worldcoin (WLD) Price Analysis

O Worldcoin Price has been trading inside a descending wedge since it marked a new ATH near $12 in the final days of Q1 2024. The recent price action helped the price break out of the upper resistance of the wedge, breaking above the crucial resistance zone between $2.21 and $2.39. Market sentiments have changed, but technicals suggest that the bulls may remain passive for a while, which could offer some room for a bearish pullback.

The price broke out of the wedge with a significant increase in volume, but the current volume suggests that the bulls have taken a step back. Meanwhile, the RSI is about to reach the upper boundary, which could attract bearish forces. Additionally, the DMI has undergone a bullish crossover, but the decline in the ADX suggests that the rally may remain consolidated above the gains. Therefore, the WLD price is expected to maintain a horizontal consolidation between $3 and $3.3 and trigger a fresh rally to $4.4 during the next bullish rally.

Arweave (AR) Price Analysis

Arweave formed a strong base around $25, which helped the rally trigger a recovery during the bearish attack. Mt. Gox and German terror forced the price to fall below $20. However, the recent price action has brought the altcoin within the bullish range and raised expectations of maintaining a decent uptrend for a few more days.

AR price has hit one of the major resistances around $30 to $31.5, which could act as a strong base once overcome. The buying volume is slowly increasing, which could keep the bullish hopes for the rally high. Moreover, the supertrend has just flashed a buy signal, indicating a clean reversal of the trend. Therefore, AR price seems primed to maintain a healthy uptrend and rally above $40. However, if the bulls maintain a similar trend, making new highs above $50 may not be a tedious task for the bulls.

Price Analysis of Injective (INJ)

Injective price has been showing sharp strength since the beginning of the year and hence, the recent turnaround is expected to revive a good uptrend going forward. The bears engulfed the rally to a large extent, but the recent price action suggests that the bulls have regained their dominance. Therefore, INJ price is expected to maintain a strong uptrend with a bearish interference on the way down.

INJ price has surged above the lower support zone and has registered consecutive bullish candles. Although the volume is below the required levels, the OBV is maintaining a sharp uptrend. Furthermore, the Ichimoku cloud lead span B is heading towards the lead span A and a healthy crossover indicates the start of a new uptrend. However, INJ price may be out of the bears’ reach once it secures the resistance zone between $30.77 and $32.12, which seems to be on the horizon.

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Markets

Ethereum at $3.5K, Exchange Supply Hits 34-Month High

Published

9 months ago

17 July, 2024

FinCrypt Staff

Ethereum at $3.5K, Exchange Supply Hits 34-Month High

Ethereum (ETH) supply on exchanges has hit a 34-month high as the asset’s price surpassed the $3,500 mark.

ETH has risen 2.3% over the past 24 hours and is trading at $3,490 at the time of writing. The second-largest cryptocurrency — with a market cap of $419 billion — briefly touched an intraday high of $3,517 earlier today.

ETH Price, Whale Activity, RSI, and Exchange Supply – July 17 | Source: Santiment

Ethereum’s daily trading volume also increased by 7.6% to reach $19.8 billion.

According to data provided by Santiment, the supply of Ethereum on exchanges has reached $19.52 million ETH. This level was last seen in September 2021, when the asset was trading around the same price.

On the other hand, data from the market intelligence platform shows that the number of whale transactions has fallen by 12% in the last day — falling from 8,730 to 7,629 unique transactions per day.

The move shows that the supply of Ethereum on exchanges has been increasing with small deposits rather than large transactions from whales.

Additionally, the ETH Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently hovering at the 60-mark, per Santiment. The indicator shows that Ethereum is slightly overbought at this price point, but it may not be in a critical position due to its large market cap.

One of the main drivers of Ethereum price increase is ETH spot expectations ETFs in the US Investment products are scheduled to start trading on July 23rd.

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Markets

Bits + Beeps: How to Play the ‘Trump Trade’ in Cryptocurrencies After the Assassination Attempt

Published

9 months ago

17 July, 2024

FinCrypt Staff

Bits + Bips: How to Play the ‘Trump Trade’ in Crypto After the Assassination Attempt

Also, how much will the Fed cut rates (and when)? What will be the inflows into ETH ETFs? And what is the near future for Bitcoin?

Posted on July 17, 2024 at 12:00 PM EST.

Listen to the episode at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Capsules, Source, Podcast Addict, Pocket molds, Amazon Musicor on your favorite podcast platform.

In this episode of Bits + Bips, hosts James Seyffart, Alex Kruger and Joe McCann, joined by guest Jack Platts, dive into the market reaction to the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, analyzing how this event will influence the 2024 US presidential election and the cryptocurrency markets.

They also cover potential rate cuts: Could there be a cut in July? How big could the September rate cut be? Could the decision be influenced by the upcoming election?

They also give their predictions on what percentage of BTC ETF inflows the ETH ETFs will reach, and James talks about what he expects for Grayscale’s ETHE (hint: his outlook would be positive for ETH).

Finally, they delve into what’s next for Bitcoin as the German government runs out of BTC and Mt. Gox distributions begin. Just now?

Program Highlights:

Whether Trump’s shooting decided the election and whether the event caused a “flight to safety”
How election markets are becoming a place to watch election probabilities and whether cryptocurrencies “lean right”
Whether rate cuts will occur in July or September and by how much they will cut: 25 bps or 50 bps
How Joe sees the relationship between global liquidity cycles, rate cuts, and the potential rise of Bitcoin
What are the new updates about Ethereum ETFs and their expected launch?
Why Solana Hasn’t Performed Significantly Better Since Trump News
What Market Breadth Indicates About the Current Market Rally and the Impact of Rates on Small Caps
Everyone’s predictions on ETH ETF inflows and how much outflow we’ll see on Grayscale’s ETHE
What’s Next for BTC After German Government Exits Bitcoin and Mt. Gox Giveaways Starting This Week