SEC Cracks Down on Crypto Staking, BTC Loses $23K Mark but Bitcoin NFTs Soar: This Week’s Recap

The past seven days saw the cryptocurrency market decline considerably and lose around $60 billion of its total capitalization. This came on the back of a regulatory crackdown on behalf of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission toward cryptocurrency staking.

It all started a couple of days back when a report suggested that the SEC is targeting the crypto exchange Kraken to allege that its staking offerings represented unregistered securities.

The following day, the CEO of Brian Armstrong also tweeted his concerns on the matter, saying that this would be particularly negative for the industry. The results were not late. Shortly after, the SEC came out with a statement that they settled with Kraken. The latter shut down its entire cryptocurrency staking program and agreed to pay a whopping $30 million in settlements.

This had a negative effect on the market, but there was a silver lining. Decentralized staking alternatives such as Lido, Rocket Pool, and Frax, saw their native cryptocurrency soar as users expect them to present viable solutions of CeFi staking tumbles further.

That said, Bitcoin is down some 8% on the weekly and is currently trading below the $23K mark. Ethereum trades at around $1520, down 7.8% for the past seven days.

In other news, however, Bitcoin NFTs are where all the rage is right now. People have been inscribing satoshis like crazy throughout the past couple of weeks, and there are now hundreds of thousands of inscriptions done through the Ordinals protocol. In fact, one of the NFTs from the Ordinals Punk collection sold for a whopping $215K.

It’s very interesting to see what the future of Bitcoin NFTs shapes up to be and if they will become as popular as their Ethereum counterparts.

Market Data

Market Cap: $1052B | 24H Vol: 98B | BTC Dominance: 39.7%

BTC: $21,635 (-8.2%) | ETH: $1,520 (-7.8%) | BNB: $305 (-6%)

Coinbase CEO Concerned About SEC Ambitions to Crackdown on Crypto Staking. The CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, has raised concerns about the stance of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on cryptocurrency staking. He said that there are rumors that the SEC will crack down on it and that this is a “terrible path” to take.

Paxos Under Investigation By US Authorities: Report. The stablecoin issuer Paxos, which is responsible for issuing BUSD, is reportedly being investigated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS). A spokesperson has so far declined to comment.

BTC, ETH Plunge 4% Following SEC Termination of Kraken Staking. Bitcoin and Ethereum lost 4% following the news that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reached an agreement with Kraken regarding its cryptocurrency staking. The exchange has to pay $30 million in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.

Investors Are Interested in Crypto Despite Bear Market: BNY Mellon Exec. The bear market hasn’t discouraged investors. That’s at least according to Michael Demissie, the head of digital assets at BNY Mellon. He said that investors are still interested in the industry.

Tether Generated Over $700 Million in Profits in Q4 2022. It’s not all doom and gloom in the market this week, despite prices going down. Tether – the issuer of USDT – reported profits of a whopping $700M in the last quarter of 2022.

NFTs on Bitcoin? Ordinal Punk Sells for Over $200K (9.5 BTC). NFTs on Bitcoin is quickly becoming a trend. In fact, one of the so-called grails in this regard, Ordinal Punks, sold for a whopping 9.5 BTC worth about $215K just yesterday.

Charts

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