Bitcoin (BTC) fell to nearly $58,900 amid regulatory pressure and financial turmoil.
CoinMarketCap data shows that Bitcoin fell to $58,930 earlier today after trading at $61,200 earlier within the last 24 hours. , Bitcoin has mostly recovered and is trading at over $61,100.
Ethereum (ETH) fared significantly better. It has seen gains after falling $100 to nearly $2,300 earlier today. ETH is trading at $2,420 — 1.13% higher than 24 hours ago.
Leading decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap (UNI) had not seen the downward pressure that Ethereum had despite operating on its blockchain. UNI has gained 3.2% over the last 24 hours and is trading at $8.08, according to CoinMarketCap. The gains follow the company announcing its own layer dedicated to decentralized finance (DeFi) in an Oct. 10 X post.
Introducing @unichain — a new L2 designed for DeFi ✨
Fast blocks (250ms), cross-chain interoperability, and a decentralized validator network
Built to be the home for liquidity across chains pic.twitter.com/lqfJh6Ltio
— Uniswap Labs 🦄 (@Uniswap) October 10, 2024
Market pressures
The fall in the crypto market followed the U.S. Consumer Price Index report, which showed that in September, the market saw another inflation increase. This, in turn, led to market participants losing hope the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates in November, which would have led to an increase in the price of risk assets such as Bitcoin.
The sell-off liquidated $147 million of leveraged long positions in crypto derivatives markets. Leverage flushes usually lead to more stable markets until significant leveraged positions are established again.
Prices then fell even more following news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued major digital asset market maker Cumberland DRW. The regulator claims that the firm acted as an unregistered dealer in over $2 billion of crypto assets that were securities.
Cumberland was quick to answer, noting that the company had been collaborating with the SEC and shared “dozens of written summaries and statements.” Despite this close collaboration, the firm explained that “today’s complaint is the first time the SEC has outlined the specific transactions at issue.”
— Cumberland (@CumberlandSays) October 10, 2024
The news follows the SEC recently filing an appeal seeking to overturn a recent ruling that the cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP) is not a security. Last month, the regulator was hit by a lawsuit by publicly traded United States crypto exchange Coinbase over its unclear rules for the crypto industry.
