Crypto Regulations in the News as Bitcoin Amid $30K: The Weekly Market Recap

Bitcoin failed to produce any notable gains over the past week, and the same can be said about the entire cryptocurrency market. It appears that the most recent regulatory clampdown in China and talks of legislation in other countries continue to take their toll.

At the time of this writing, BTC is trading at around $33,500, which is more or less exactly where it was last Friday. It started pushing forward over the past weekend, but the advance was halted on Monday, at around $36K, when bears once again stepped in and brought the price down.

Most altcoins are more or less in the same boat as BTC, with ETH charting insignificant gains of around 2%, ADA – 2%, DOT – 2%, and so forth. There are a few exceptions, however. On the negative side, DOGE is down about 11%, but on the flip side – BNB is up over 9%, whereas UNI surged by almost 20%.

In general, the sentiment remains rather negative. According to the Fear and Greed Index, the market is presently riddled with extreme fear – a situation where investors are particularly fearful of entering the market.

This happens amid a serious clampdown on behalf of authorities throughout the entire world. Yesterday, Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren called the market “highly opaque and volatile” and urged the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US to regulate it. Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China warned that stablecoins impose risks to the international monetary system.

Yet, the week was not without positive developments as well. The Bank of America became the latest US banking giant to lay down plans to enter the industry. This surely highlights the fact that there is demand, but investors continue to be wary.

In any case, it’s also worth noting that zooming out shows us that BTC is still up tremendously over the past 12 months. However, we’re almost at the levels of the beginning of the year, so it’s important to see how the market will develop going forward.

Market Data

Market Cap: $1452B | 24H Vol: $95B | BTC Dominance: 43.4%

BTC: $33,628 (-0.1%) | ETH: $2,175 (+2.5%) | XRP: $0.637 (-4%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Better Not Miss

Change of Heart? Bank of America Has Reportedly Set Up Crypto Research Team. Bank of America – one of the largest financial institutions in the United States, has become the latest one to supposedly join the cryptocurrency bandwagon. The bank is reportedly planning to enter the industry.

Israeli Parliament the First to Lend the Elected President the Declaration as an NFT. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have reached politics. The Israeli Parliament becomes the first one to lend the declaration to the elected president in the form of an NFT.

Stablecoin Issuer Circle is Going Public at $4.5 Billion Valuation. The company behind one of the most popular stablecoins (USDC) – Circle, outlined plans to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The valuation is estimated to be at around $4.5 billion.

Another Step: China’s Central Bank Shuts Down a Firm Providing Services for Crypto Transactions. In a bid to continue with its overall clampdown on Bitcoin and the market, China’s Central Bank shut down a company for providing services for cryptocurrency transactions. This happens amid a wider regulatory effort towards the industry.

Goldman Sachs: Ethereum May Surpass Bitcoin as Store of Value, But Not Gold. Analysts at the giant Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs have once again reaffirmed their bullish stance on Ether. In a note to investors from this week, they outlined that Ethereum will eventually become a better store of value than Bitcoin.

Jack Dorsey’s Square Confirms: We Are Building a Bitcoin Hardware Wallet. Square – the company, spearheaded by the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, confirmed plans to build a hardware Bitcoin wallet. This aims to further popularize the cryptocurrency and enhance its mass adoption.

Charts

This week we have a chart analysis of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, and Solana – click here for the full price analysis.