After a prolonged period of uncertainty, bankruptcies, and regulatory ambiguity, the crypto winter seems to be nearing its end. Recent developments in the regulatory landscape have brought a near close to the worst crypto winter in the DeFi market history.
On Friday, cryptocurrencies were testing year highs as a number of positive regulatory and investor actions began to alter momentum in markets that had been locked in a rut for months.
Crypto winter shines its way out
For the better part of last year, the digital asset industry has grappled with the worst crypto winter to come into existence. However, after the XRP-SEC ruling yesterday, the crypto market has started to recover. Many analysts have called an end to the crypto winter since the start of this week. According to market reports, Bitcoin hit the highest all year and traded close to $32,000.
Overnight, Bitcoin reached its highest price since June 2022, reaching $31,818 on the Bitstamp exchange. It is up more than 90% for the year and nearly 30% in just one month.
Ether, the second-largest crypto, had its highest session since March, and Ripple, which a US judge decided could be lawfully exchanged on public crypto exchanges, surged 73%.
According to CoinMarketCap, the current Bitcoin price is $31,237. The leading crypto has a 24-hour trading volume of $26,402,355,347. Bitcoin has gained 2.76% in the last 24 hours. Today’s price of Ethereum (ETH) is $2,009.92, with a 24-hour trading volume of $19,459,515,023.76. This indicates a 7.48% increase in the last 24 hours. The BTC fear and greed index sits at 60.
According to CoinGecko, the global crypto market cap is now $1.3 trillion, a 6.04% increase over the last 24 hours and a 34.65% increase over a year ago. Bitcoin’s (BTC) market cap is at $608 billion, signifying a 46.83% dominance. Meanwhile, the market cap of stablecoins is $128 billion, accounting for 9.84% of the total crypto market cap.
The Ripple ruling coincided with contested fraud charges against the former CEO of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network and followed advances into the market by BlackRock and Fidelity.
One market analyst notes, “The regulatory environment is changing, and based on the events of the past twenty-four hours, it may be for the better.” Another adds that “Ripple stakeholders were waiting for some regulatory clarity. Yesterday the court seems to have provided just that.”
Crypto investors attest to a change in market sentiment
The ruling sparked a rally in smaller crypto coins known as “altcoins,” with tokens such as Solana, Matic, and Stellar gaining between 15% and 50% and shares of exchange Coinbase reaching an all-time high, up 24%.
Another crypto market analyst added that “If centralized crypto projects aren’t securities, then that may make it more likely for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to be primary regulator for the industry, which is something most people in crypto would prefer.”
According to traders, liquidity was low for altcoins but consistently increasing for bitcoin and ether. The turnover of Coinbase stock on Thursday was the highest it has been in 14 months, lending credence to a move that has more than doubled the stock price in a month.
The entry of traditional banking firms into crypto, bringing in big funds, has brought back memories of the boom that increased Bitcoin’s value by 300% in 2020.
Last month, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, applied to start a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, and earlier this month, exchange operator Cboe updated its filing for a similar fund to be managed by asset management Fidelity.
What brought about the crypto winter?
Currently, crypto assets are trading near or above the lows reached in November of last year, when the collapse of the FTX exchange triggered the “crypto winter”
FTX imploded when it was unable to honor a flurry of withdrawal requests, and its failure, which exposed customers to losses, accelerated global regulatory efforts to rein in the sector, particularly to safeguard small investors attracted by high returns.
China has nearly outlawed crypto and Bitcoin trading. Sam Bankman-Fried, the proprietor of FTX, has been accused of multibillion-dollar fraud by U.S. investigators, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky also pleaded not guilty to his charges on Thursday, and many other legal battles are still pending, as are market setbacks.
Coinbase and its larger rival Binance are facing lawsuits from the SEC, as well as other regulators in Binance’s case. Last month, a top SEC official stated that the industry has “an ethos built around noncomplicance.”
