This Week in Crypto – BTC and ETH Lead Market Downturn as Dollar Rises
Bitcoin and Ethereum are ending this week in losses despite rallying significantly on Wednesday after the release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report by the United States Bureau of Statistics. The US CPI increased to 4.9%, just below financial experts’ prediction of 5%.
BTC has recorded 7-day losses of 7.8% to trade at $26,835 as of Sunday noon. It appears that even the news regarding the Principality of Liechtenstein accepting the crypto asset as a payment option for various services in the coming days couldn’t stop Bitcoin from posting more losses than Ethereum over the last seven days.
Bitcoin pullback comes amid a strengthening US dollar. The dollar index has recorded a massive uptick over the last three days. Usually, when the dollar rises, the BTC’s value tends to decline.
The buzz around the Bitcoin NFT ecosystem also seems to be fading based on the trading volume generated this week. According to data from Dune, Ordinals NFT sales declined by over 50% to $118.3 million in the last seven days.
Bitcoin Gas Fees Hit 2-Year High
On top of that, transaction fees on the Bitcoin blockchain reached a 2-year high on Wednesday. Data from BitInfoCharts shows each transaction required a fee of $31.16 to be processed. But that figure has dropped below $10 as of this writing.
Meanwhile, Ethereum has shed 5.4% of its value over the past seven days. The second-biggest crypto by market capitalization is priced at $1,806. ETH is among the few top thirty tokens that have seen light dips.
Several crypto assets have declined by over 9% this week, including Internet Computer, which fell 9.3% to $5.17; Avalanche, which dropped 11.4% to change hands for $15.07; Polygon, which plunged 11.6% to $0. 856; and Toncoin, which plummeted $11.9% to trade for $1.86.
Other Crypto News
At the start of the week, US-based crypto exchange Bittrex announced that it had filed for bankruptcy protection. The development came a few weeks after the US Securities and Exchange Commission accused the firm of not registering with the regulator as a broker-dealer. The commission claimed Bittrex had generated over $1.2 billion in illegal revenue for the last five years.
In March, the trading platform said it was looking to shut down US operations due to what it termed as a harsh regulatory environment.
On Wednesday, the Democrat and Republican policymakers failed to agree on whether a token is to be treated as a commodity or security. If the former, the lawmakers would have given the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulatory jurisdiction; if the latter, the Securities and Exchange Commission would be the main regulator.
On that day, Texas policymakers voted in favor of a proposal that sought to include the right for people to own and use crypto assets in the State’s Bill of Rights. But it is very early for Texas residents to celebrate because the proposal has to pass a vote in the Senate and another in the House.
Finally, The US Chamber of Commerce called out the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday for its recent ‘regulation-by-enforcement’ approach to the crypto industry. The organization revealed it had submitted an amicus brief supporting Coinbase’s petition that aims at forcing the agency to clarify its crypto regulations.
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