Bitcoin, Ether up; top cryptos lower amid SEC lawsuits

Bitcoin increased 0.5 per cent to $26,442, Ether advanced 0.46 per cent, to $1,724

Bitcoin and Ether rose during Monday afternoon trading hours in Hong Kong, while the majority of leading non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies dropped. Risk appetite stayed low after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance and Coinbase two weeks back.

Bitcoin increased 0.5 per cent to $26,442 in Hong Kong. Ether advanced 0.46 per cent, to $1,724.

Bitcoin surpassed $26,000 on Saturday to a seven-day peak of $26,769 after it dipped to three-month lows at the end of last week.

Crypto investor appetite continues to be cautious since the Securities and Exchange Commission launched legal action against Binance and Coinbase two weeks ago.

Perhaps this recent behaviour will lead to a revamping of the Securities and Exchange Commission with a new person in charge, Mike Brusov, co-founder of crypto intelligence company Cindicator, wrote in a statement shared with Forkast.

New leadership would then initiate positive changes for crypto regulations and present a major step forward in the crypto industry’s development. The new administration would confidently trigger further innovation and aid with the growth of the crypto space within the US, he said.

Cardano’s ADA token was the day’s biggest decliner among the top currencies, dropping 2.36 per cent during the last 24 hours to $0.2601, followed by Polygon’s Matic token that shed 1.62 per cent to $0.5983.

The XRP token saw the largest gain, increasing 0.95 per cent to $0.4884. The token saw some upside momentum since last week after the release of internal Securities and Exchange Commission documents showing former director William Hinman saying that Ether was not a security. Investors hope this would prove that XRP was unfairly targeted by the agency, in the SEC vs. XRP lawsuit.

The total crypto market capitalization over the last 24 hours declined 0.33 per cent to $1.07trln and market volume dropped 1.2 per cent to $19.92bln, as per CoinMarketCap.

The Forkast 500 NFT index dropped 0.11 per cent to 2,878.67 points during the 24 hours to 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong and lost 4.39 per cent during the week.

Ethereum’s 24-hour NFT sales dropped 19.8 per cent to $10.51mln, as sales for the biggest Ethereum-native collection, the Bored Ape Yacht Club, declined 47.76 per cent to $665,168. Mutant Ape Yacht Club sales also lost 18.99 per cent to $541,976.

Bitcoin’s 24-hour NFT sales increased 49.52 per cent to $2.19mln, helped by $FRAM BRC-20 NFTs that increased 5641 per cent to $556,055, as per data from CryptoSlam.

Nike took the NFT industry by surprise on Friday, after it posted a teaser video for the “ultimate Sneakerhunt” beginning on June 20 on the popular multiplayer online game Fortnite, which could signal an approaching NFT collection. The apparel company has released digital apparel on Fortnite in the past.

Looking at the day’s most striking NFT sales, LBT #6 sold for $600,000 while LBT #7 sold for $200,000.