It was second week in a row of direct losses for leading cryptocurrencies.
The start of the third month of the year comes after the first two weeks of losses in 2023. Considering that the end of 2022 was a virtual free fall for the entire market, it is too early to say whether crypto has stumbled back into the market. forest or not.
The setback this week appeared to be one reaction to news that the crypto bank Silvergate late filing of its annual 10-K report with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), sending the stock down 31% in after-hours trading on Wednesday. Coin base, Tetherand a host of other crypto companies were quick to follow cut their ties to the beleaguered crypto bank.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell 6.3% over the past seven days and is currently trading at $22,336, while Ethereum (ETH) fared slightly better on the news, only sinking 4.7% to reach $1,564, according to data from CoinGecko.
Several leading currencies fell in value by double-digit percentiles, including Cardano (ADA) which fell 11.1% to $0.339492, Polygon (MATIC) fell 14.4% to $5.94, Avalanche (AVAX) sank 15.9% to $16.51, Cosmos Hub (ATOM) ) fell 12.5% to $11.91, and Chainlink (LINK) fell 12.7% to $6.89.
Solana didn’t fall as far, falling about 10.8% to reach $20.96 at the time of writing – despite a mysterious interruption this week that took the network offline for 20 hours. The Solana Foundation is currently examines the incident.
After posting some blistering gains two weeks ago, storage protocol token Filecoin (FILE) fell a staggering 21% to $6.05.
There were no significant gains among any of the leading cryptocurrencies this week.
Regulators tighten the screws
There was plenty of chatter in political circles across the globe that made crypto fans uneasy this week. First, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, told a Bloomberg reporter on Monday that “if regulation is slow to come and crypto-assets become a higher risk to consumers and potentially to financial stability,” the option of banning cryptocurrencies “should not be taken from the table.”
National Assembly of France voted Tuesday to adopt a series of EU laws, including an amendment setting out tighter requirements for new players wishing to operate in the French crypto market. The bill now only requires President Macron’s signature to be approved as law.
Stateside on Monday, Coinbase announced that it was delisting of BUSD, a dollar-pegged stablecoin created by rival exchange Binance. The news came two weeks after stablecoin issuer Paxos said it would “end its relationship with Binance” after being hit by an SEC lawsuit over stablecoin issuance; SEC prosecutor Paxos for violating investor protection laws.
Meanwhile, the SEC’s “regulation-by-enforcement” (read: crypto clampdown) strategy continued in high gear this week as Robinhood announced on Tuesday that it was subpoenaed by the federal regulator over the trading app’s “supported cryptocurrencies, custody of cryptocurrencies and platform operations.”