On Thursday, Bitcoin (BTC) was down by 5%, effectively nullifying the week’s earlier gains, which had been spurred by Grayscale’s encouraging legal win against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This victory brought Grayscale a step closer to getting its desired spot-bitcoin ETF approved.
However, the SEC dampened the enthusiasm from this mid-week surge by once more postponing its pending verdict on similar submissions from major firms like BlackRock, WisdomTree, Ark Invest, and Bitwise.
Aiming to gather further public insights on the issue, the SEC extended the decision’s deadline to 16 October.
This move was sufficient to push Bitcoin’s price downward, implying that the temporary mid-week jump beyond 28k was merely speculative.
In the broader picture, bitcoin faces consistent challenges: Diminished trading volumes, scepticism towards the crypto sector, and a prevalent risk-averse sentiment among global investors.
A lot hinges on the approval of these spot-bitcoin ETFs, so any postponement or hint of risk regarding their ultimate sanction is unfavourably received by the market.
Even with an approval, it might result in a break-even scenario.
As of now, the BTC/USDT exchange rate is hovering around $26,000 as of 9 a.m. on 1 September.
Binance’s trading data indicates a sell wall for the bitcoin-dollar pairing at $26,300.
Mirroring Bitcoin’s movements, Ethereum saw a decline of 3.5% on the spot market, settling at $1,645 by midnight. The ETH/USDT rate maintained this level during this morning’s trading session in Asia.
This abrupt decline in these flagship cryptocurrencies triggered a series of long position liquidations in the futures market, erasing $42 million of long-bitcoin and $25 million of long-ether positions.
In the broader altcoin arena, Dogecoin (DOGE) remains an exception, posting a week-on-week gain of 2.2%. In contrast, cryptocurrencies such as Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), and Polkadot (DOT) have exhibited bearish tendencies.
In another notable move, the Toncoin (TON) blockchain has ascended to the 11th position on the charts, buoyed by a 22% week-on-week surge.
The overall cryptocurrency market’s valuation is currently pegged at $1.05 trillion, with bitcoin accounting for 49.26% of it.
