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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is set to end the week ~4% lower as Silvergate Capital’s (SI) viability warning fueled fears of a domino effect in the cryptocurrency market. Risk appetite was also hit by ongoing concerns over the Federal Reserve’s policy path.
The Federal Reserve will likely raise its policy rate to a level higher than it projected late last year, given still hot economic data that point to continued inflationary pressures.
The top crypto fell to an over two-week low on Friday, remaining firmly below $24K for the most part of this week. The overall crypto market cap currently stands at $1.03T, down 3.8% over Thursday, according to CoinMarketCap.
Regulatory Updates
- Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said he remains “deeply skeptical” of cryptos’ usefulness in the real world.
- Two Republican lawmakers opposed an April bulletin issued by the SEC intended to control how regulated financial institutions account for crypto.
- Three U.S. senators called on crypto exchange Binance to disclose its balance sheets, raising serious doubts over its compliance policies.
- Nishad Singh, former FTX (FTT-USD) director of engineering, agreed to plead guilty to fraud charges. Additionally, the SEC and the CFTC filed separate charges against him.
Notable News
- Celsius Network (CEL-USD) resumed asset withdrawals for certain custody accounts.
- Binance.US remains committed to the acquisition of bankrupt Voyager Digital (OTCPK:VYGVQ), even after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao suggested it may consider pulling out of the deal.
- Mastercard and Visa are said to have paused forging new relationships with crypto firms, owing to recent high-profile failures in the sector.
- Goldman Sachs is reportedly open to adding more staff to its crypto team, bucking the industrywide trend of layoffs following last year’s downturn.
- Coinbase (COIN) suspended trading for Binance USD (BUSD-USD) as the stablecoin doesn’t meet its listing standards.
Bitcoin Price
- SA contributor Florian Grummes said restrictive monetary policies and increasing regulation remain a big burden for speculative asset like bitcoin (BTC-USD), and the beaten-down crypto sector is far from being optimistic. “As long as pullbacks can hold above $23.5K, a breakout towards around $30K is the most likely scenario from a technical perspective.”
