Bitcoin dips over weekend; US futures edge down
Having slipped over the weekend, Bitcoin rose to trade at over US$30,300 on Monday morning in Asia. The price has now reverted to around the level posted last Thursday — prior to XRP issuer Ripple’s favorable ruling in its lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The partial victory led to significant gains for a number of top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, with XRP still leading the gains. U.S. stock futures edged lower as investors await earnings reports from major banks.
Bitcoin falls back
Bitcoin edged up 0.05% over the last 24 hours to US$30,332.54 as of 06:30 a.m. in Hong Kong for a weekly gain of 0.65%, according to data from CryptoMarketCap.
However, the world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading at around US$31,300 early Saturday morning. Following that weekend high, the token’s price reverted to roughly its pre-Ripple ruling level.
In a summary judgment Thursday, New York Southern District Court Judge Analisa Torres ruled that Ripple’s programmatic sales of the XRP token on public exchanges do not constitute securities. The regulator first sued the San Francisco-based financial technology firm on the grounds that XRP constitutes a security in 2020.
The ruling was deemed something of a partial victory for Ripple, however, as the court ruled that XRP sales to institutional investors did violate securities laws.
“There will be further court proceedings on that part … It is also not yet known if the SEC will appeal to the ruling,” said Caroline Bowler, CEO of Australia-based crypto exchange BTC Markets, in emailed comments. Therefore, there remains the “potential for more insecurity ahead for Ripple,” Bowler added.
Nonetheless, Ripple Labs’ XRP led the gainers Monday morning in Asia. It rose 5.58% to US$0.7577 for a weekly surge of 61.56%.
Meanwhile, the SEC has added BlackRock’s application for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to its official docket. That decision means that the regulator will now review the proposal in a serious manner.
Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager with over US$9 trillion in assets, filed the application a little less than a month ago. The move saw the token’s value breach the US$31,000 resistance level earlier this month as multiple major asset managers followed suit with similar ETF proposals.
Ether also gained 0.20% to US$1,934.09, rising 3.81% in the past seven days.
Other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies were mixed. The day’s biggest losses were logged by Dogecoin, which dipped 2.53% to US$0.07. However, the token still recorded gains of 6.89% for the week.
Cardano’s ADA also fell 2.52% to US$0.3185, limiting the coin’s weekly gain to 12.08%. Similarly, Binance’s BNB lost 2.43% to US$244.95. It is nonetheless trading at 4.68% higher than a week ago.
The total crypto market capitalization rose 0.16% in the past 24 hours to US$1.22 trillion, while trading volume fell 11.97% to US$24.91 billion.
