The crypto market suffers amid challenging regulatory events in both the United States and Europe.
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) lost 3% in an hour and that of Ether (ETH) approached $1,000 on June 30, as pessimism took control of the cryptocurrency markets.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed the BTC/USD pair hitting $19,224 on Bitstamp during Asian trading, the lowest since June 19.
The lack of momentum on the upside, combined with the failure to reclaim critical support from the 200-week moving average, set the stage for further weakness in Bitcoin. The largest cryptocurrency thus plunged into the support zone defined a day earlier by Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe.
Meanwhile, traders toyed with the idea of a relief bounce back towards $20,000.
Traders Eye a “Sweep Low” for BTC
Twitter user @pedma7 posted a note claiming that, “I expect more range trading within this prices as breakouts and breakdowns take longer to happen and prices are getting pretty extended from their averages. #BTC using this hourly 50MA for short-term retraces of this downtrend, so I’d expect a reversion pretty soon to that mean.”
“We are looking for a sweep of the lows and a pullback before considering going long because this is a very strong downtrend and we want to see some strength first,” trading platform Cryptop told its Twitter followers in a part of a new update.
News that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had rejected an application by Grayscale to convert its Bitcoin investment vehicle, the Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), into an exchange-traded fund (ETF) did not help the feeling.
Regulatory pressure also came from the European Union, which voted to increase restrictions on cryptocurrency movements.
“The agreement extends the so-called ‘travel rule’, already existing in traditional finance, to cover transfers in crypto assets. This rule requires that information about the origin of the asset and its beneficiary travel with the transaction and be stored on both sides of the transfer”, explains a press release on the measure:
“Crypto asset service providers (CASPs) will be required to provide this information to the competent authorities if an investigation into money laundering and terrorist financing is carried out.”
UNUS SED LEO Rises as Bitfinex Longs Cool
As expected, altcoins continued the depressed mood of the day, with the ETH/USD pair heading towards the $1,000 support for the first time in ten days.
Only the UNUS SED LEO (LEO) token from major exchange Bitfinex conspicuously bucked the trend, gaining 3.5% on the day and extending the monthly return above 20%.
The platform had previously made headlines for the exponential growth of its BTC/USD long positions, which leveled off in the second half of June.
By Audy Castaneda
