This week, the cryptocurrency market had ambiguous dynamics: the prices tried to decrease but, by now, they have started to grow again and won back some of the lost positions. Now BTC is trading at 30700.00 ( 1.1%), ETH is at 1875.00 (–0.9%), USDT is at 0.9999 (–0.02%), BNB is at 238.00 ( 0.7%), and USDC is around 1.0003 ( 0.01%). The total market capitalization was 1.195B dollars, and the share of BTC increased to 50.17%.

The digital sector was in a state of uncertainty as long-term monetary and regulatory pressures were partly offset by investor hopes for the approval of the launch of a spot bitcoin ETF and the unstable political situation in Russia. The decrease in the quotes of the main cryptocurrencies is still facilitated by the attention of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the leading digital platforms Coinbase and Binance. At the same time, the latter company is in the most difficult situation since European countries joined its pursuit: recently, the British subsidiary, Binance Markets Limited, lost its license from local regulatory authorities and will no longer be able to operate in the country, the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority also ordered the local branch stop providing services, and the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) rejected Binance’s application for permission to provide services for the storage of cryptocurrencies. The crypto exchange also lost its banking partner in the EU, Paysafe Payment Solutions, which deposited and withdrew funds from Coinbase customers through the SEPA banking payment system. Mounting pressure on the world’s leading digital marketplace has investors wary of further regulatory restrictions on the digital sector. Also, this week, US President Joe Biden promised to close all tax loopholes for crypto traders. It is also worth noting the traditional negative impact on the market of monetary factors: yesterday, at the European Central Bank (ECB) Forum on Central Banking, the head of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, confirmed the possibility of a further increase in interest rates, which could support the US dollar against alternative assets.

Nevertheless, despite negative factors, the prices of the main tokens remained relatively stable. Experts note that they were supported by the hopes of investors for the SEC approval of the application for the creation of a spot bitcoin ETF, filed by the largest US asset management company BlackRock. Recall that the regulator has been preventing the issuance of such documents for several years but experts believe that BlackRock has the greatest chance of obtaining permission from officials to launch a new investment product. After the filing of the application, trading volumes in the cryptocurrency market began to grow seriously and, at the beginning of the week, were already 19.5B dollars. Also, the instability of the political situation in Russia, which almost escalated into a military conflict, contributed to the growth in the popularity of digital assets, forcing investors to turn to cryptocurrencies to save funds. Experts note that Russian citizens were the most active in buying the USDT stablecoin.

The situation in the cryptocurrency market remains difficult, and pressure on prices from long-term monetary and regulatory factors remains. Soon, quotes may resume their decline or attempt to consolidate.