Bitcoin and ether have traded higher over the last 24 hours despite the recent regulatory enforcement action by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Binance and Coinbase, two of the major players in the crypto industry.
The SEC alleged that the exchanges had been selling unregistered securities as part of the charges. Across the two cases, the SEC said that Solana (SOL), Polygon (MATIC), Binance Coin (BNB) and Cosmos (ATOM) were securities.
Notably, bitcoin and ether were not mentioned in either of the filings. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler told New York Magazine earlier this year that “everything other than bitcoin” is considered a security but then refused to comment on whether ether was a security in a hearing in April.
Yesterday, Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Rostin Benham said that ether was a commodity in a congressional hearing on a draft digital assets market structure bill.
Bitcoin (BTC) is up 3%, trading at around $26,800, while ether (ETH) rose to $1,854 having increased 2% over the last 24 hours, according to data from Coingecko. Some altcoins listed as securities by the SEC have also started to recoup the recent losses including Filecoin (FIL) and Cosmos (ATOM).
Coinbase (COIN) plummeted 12% yesterday on the news but is up 3% in pre-market trading. Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought $21 million worth of Coinbase shares for its ETFs yesterday despite the SEC’s regulatory action against the exchange. This is calculated based on Coinbase’s close price of $52.
Retail trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) is trading sideways. Robinhood’s chief legal compliance officer Dan Gallagher told the congressional hearing yesterday that the retail trading platform was “actively reviewing the SEC analysis” to determine what actions to take in relation to the tokens being listed as securities by the SEC in its recent enforcement actions.
Decentralized exchanges such as Dydx (DYDX) have been some of the biggest winners in the crypto market following the regulatory action, up 4% over the past 24 hours. Investors are moving toward decentralized exchanges as they are viewed as being outside the purview of U.S. regulators. Decentralized exchange trading volumes have also ticked up following the enforcement actions.
