First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Drops Below $64K, Ether Falls

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Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, has dropped 4% over the last 24 hours to less than $64,000. Ether also saw a significant downside, losing 6%, and the CoinDesk 20 Index, a measure of the broader crypto market, lost 6% as well. Reuters reported that U.S. issuers expect the Securities and Exchange Commission to deny their applications to launch spot ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) after discouraging meetings with the agency in recent weeks. In traditional markets, tech stocks declined after Meta failed to live up to high expectations for its first-quarter earnings report.

BlackRock’s spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which trades under the ticker IBIT on Nasdaq, fell out of favor on Wednesday, preliminary data published by Farside Investors showed. For the first time since going live on Jan. 11, the fund did not draw any investor money, snapping a 71-day inflows streak. Seven of the other 10 funds followed IBIT’s lead. Fidelity’s FBTC and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) registered inflows of $5.6 million and $4.2 million, respectively, while Grayscale’s GBTC bled $130.4 million, leading to a net cumulative outflow of $120.6 million, the highest since April 17.

U.S. House Representative Maxine Waters (D-California) indicated that the final version of a stablecoin bill could be ready soon. “We are on our way to getting a stablecoin bill in the short run,” the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee told Bloomberg on Wednesday. Waters has previously called a version of the stablecoin bill “deeply problematic and bad for America.” “It’s about making sure investors and that the people are protected,” Waters told Bloomberg. “We have to ensure that they have those assets to back up stablecoins,” she said. The latest development strengthens hopes that the U.S. can get a new stablecoin law before the elections this year, which was considered a longshot at the start of the year.

Chart of the Day

• The chart shows CryptoQuant’s Coinbase premium index, which tracks the spread between bitcoin’s prices on the Nasdaq-listed Coinbase (COIN) exchange and the offshore giant Binance.

• The indicator shows bitcoin is again trading at a discount on Coinbase, reflecting a weaker net buying pressure from U.S. investors.

• Source: CryptoQuant.

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