Bitcoin drops after regaining the $26,000 level, Ether drops

XRP was the only gainer among the top non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, while Polygon led the decliners

Bitcoin slumped on Monday morning in Asia after regaining the $26,000 support level over the weekend. Ether also dropped, but stayed above $1,700. XRP was the only gainer among the top non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, while Polygon led the decliners. Crypto exchange Bakkt reportedly delisted Polygon, Solana and Cardano after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) labelled them illegally issued financial securities. U.S. equity markets are closed Monday for a public holiday, but they could advance in the week ahead as economic data on Friday pointed to cooling inflation, while the first visit to China in nearly five years by a top U.S. diplomat could be a positive for capital markets.

Bitcoin dropped 0.97 per cent over the past 24 hours to $26,308 at 07:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, but held onto a weekly gain of 1.58 per cent, as per data from CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin breached the $26,000 level on Saturday to hit a seven-day high of $26,769. The token had dipped to three-month lows at the end of last week.

Ether shed 0.82 per cent to $1,716, logging a weekly decline of 2.18 per cent.

Apart from XRP, other top non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies traded lower during the last 24 hours. Polygon’s Matic led the decliners, sliding 3.22 per cent to $0.5971 and 5.88 per cent lower over the last seven days.

Crypto exchange Bakkt has suspended trading of Polygon, Solana and Cardano tokens and plans to delist them, as per Fortune on Friday. Trading platforms like Robinhood and eToro have also decided to delist multiple cryptocurrencies after the SEC filed lawsuits this month against Coinbase and Binance.US and named a long list of cryptocurrencies as securities that were issued and sold without the approval of SEC.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were impacted by increasingly changing sentiment toward crypto as traders could limit their risk-taking in the crypto market because of limited upside catalysts and especially taking into account the legal risks in the US, commented Wael Makarem, senior market strategist at trading platform Exness Group.

The legal actions could scare away some investors from the market but could be comparatively positive for Bitcoin’s dominance against other cryptocurrencies. In this regard, Bitcoin has also been gaining ground against Ethereum, stated Makarem.

The Bitcoin balance on crypto exchanges hit a three-month low of 2,281,978.198 tokens on Sunday, as per blockchain data tracker Glassnode, which lessened some selling pressure as investors usually move tokens to exchanges when they intend to sell.

XRP was the only leading non-stablecoin token that gained in the last 24 hours, adding 1.01 per cent to $0.4859, but shedding 6.34 per cent for the week.

The total cryptocurrency market cap slumped 0.53 per cent to $1.07 trillion during the past 24 hours, while crypto trading volume dropped 18.47 per cent to $19.69 billion, as per CoinMarketCap data.