BlackRock Files for Bitcoin Spot ETF, BTC Dropped to 3-Month Low as Fed Pauses Interest Rate Hikes: This Week’s Recap

There aren’t too many favorable developments within the cryptocurrency community lately. It all started last Monday when the US SEC decided to begin a legal battle against Binance and doubled down on its crackdown against large crypto exchanges by suing Coinbase the very next day as well.

Expectedly, these rather unexpected events led to massive price crashes for the majority of crypto assets. Nevertheless, many managed to recover most losses by the end of last week, but it all changed precisely seven days ago.

As Friday came to its end and Saturday approached, numerous digital assets, mostly altcoins that were mentioned in the SEC’s lawsuits for being unregistered securities, dumped by double digits during a massive weekend bloodbath.

BTC and ETH were spared to an extent, perhaps because they were not in the SEC’s filings. However, after a relatively quiet week in which even the US CPI numbers from Wednesday and the Fed’s decision to halt the interest rate hikes on Thursday didn’t shake the primary cryptocurrency – at first.

That all changed on Thursday evening when BTC slumped from over $26,000 to just below $24,800 to chart its lowest price position in three months. Most alts followed suit, with some, such as BNB, posting six-month lows.

Bitcoin managed to bounce off after the first positive news of the week. The cryptocurrency spiked by over a grand once the world’s largest asset manager – BlackRock – filed documents to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF in the States.

Looking at the charts on a weekly scale, though, the landscape seems quite painful. While bitcoin is down by a more modest 4%, some alts, such as EOS, ApeCoin, Flow, Polygon, Chiliz, Axie Infinity, THORChain, PEPE, The Sandbox, and many others, have shed double digits, dumping by up to 35% in seven days.

Market Data

Market Cap: $1,072B | 24H Vol: $33B | BTC Dominance: 46.1%

BTC: $25,500 (-4.2%) | ETH: $1,663 (-10%) | BNB: $235 (-10.1%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Better Not Miss

BlackRock Files Bitcoin Spot ETF Application, Taps Coinbase. As mentioned above, the positive highlight of the week came when the US behemoth BlackRock filed documents to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF in the States. Given the SEC’s views on the matter, though, the community doesn’t really hold its breath.

Brazil’s President Empowers the Central Bank as Crypto Regulator. While the United States still fails to provide clear guidelines on the crypto industry and even which regulator is supposed to do so, Brazil’s president ordered the nation’s central bank to begin supervising the digital asset space.

Miami Bitcoin-Loving Mayor Joins the US Presidential Race. The US presidential race is heating up, with new candidates popping up weekly. The latest to do so is Francis Suarez – the current mayor of Miami, who is a keen supporter of BTC and has even invested in the asset.

CZ Refutes Reports That Binance’s French Branch Was Under Investigation. CZ had a busy week having to quash false rumors. First, he refuted the speculations that his company began selling BTC and BNB. Just on Friday, he had to rebut a report that French authorities had started investigating Binance’s local branch.

Judge Rejects SEC’s Request to Freeze Binance.US Assets, Orders Parties to Compromise. The first sparks on the Binance-SEC front began this week. The SEC requested an emergency asset freeze of Binance.US’ holdings, but a US judge rejected the motion and ordered both parties to find a more fitting solution.

Bitcoin Trades Flat After Federal Reserve Pauses Rate Hikes. As many expected, the US Federal Reserve decided to pause the interest rate hike policy after numerous consecutive increases. While BTC indeed remained relatively flat at first, the asset tumbled in the following hours.