Crypto Market News: Amid talk of the crypto market‘s decoupling from the traditional market, the wind is now shifting towards major regulatory changes in the space. This is despite clear signs of dwindling trust in the banks amid a banking crisis that is shaking global markets. But the crypto prices saw impressive rally as the banking crisis unfolded over the last few weeks. This situation, however, does not imply any easing in regulatory environment for the crypto asset ecosystem in the United States, unless lawmakers resolve the hurdles.

Also Read: Cardano Reaches Historic Milestone, Popular Analyst Predicts ADA Price To Hit $15

KBW Nasdaq Bank Index, which tracks performance of the leading public banks in the U.S., fell by as much as 28% over the last three weeks. This coincided with an 18% rise for Bitcoin price over the same period.

Gary Gensler’s Attempts To Influence UK Regulators

As CoinGape reported earlier, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler is said to have lobbied with his counterparts in the United Kingdom and Canada about maintaining a common action plan for crypto regulation. Reacting to this news, XRP lawyer John Deaton spoke on how different the regulators of US and UK operated in the past, giving Ripple (XRP) token example. Reports said the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was making efforts to come up with an announcement in this respect.

“It will be very interesting to see if the U.K.’s FCA plays ball with Gary Gensler and the SEC. To place in perspective just how far apart the two agencies are: the FCA labeled XRP a non-security token and called it a hybrid token — part exchange token and part utility token.”

Gensler had in recent past faced heavy criticism for saying all cryptocurrencies expect Bitcoin are securities. The SEC had earlier in the week issued a Wells notice to top US based crypto exchange Coinbase.

Also Read: Bitcoin To $1 Million: Ex-Coinbase CTO Assures Off Bet; But There’s A Catch

Anvesh reports major developments around crypto adoption and trading opportunities. Having been associated with the industry since 2016, he is now a strong advocate of decentralized technologies. Anvesh is currently based in India. Reach out to him at [email protected]

The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.

According to a BBC report, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that cryptocurrency cash machines (ATMs) operating in the country will be shut down. The FCA further noted that no company offering crypto-currency services in the UK has a licence to operate a crypto-ATM. 

“We regularly warn consumers that crypto assets are unregulated and high-risk, which means people are very unlikely to have any protection if things go wrong,” the FCA stated.

Cryptocurrencies may have faced a setback in the UK, but they have gained support in another quarter. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak described Bitcoin as “the only one that’s pure-gold mathematics.” He added that Bitcoin will reach $100,000, according to various media reports. Speaking on a show, he said, “Bitcoin is safe because it’s the big elephant on the block.” He is, however, sceptical about most other cryptocurrencies, and said that many of the use-cases in the crypto space seem to be designed as scams. “I think it’s being used a lot these days to rip people off.”

Another name to come out in support of crypto currencies was investor Kevin O’Leary. In an interview with CNBC, the venture capitalist, who has also appeared on the famous show “Shark Tank,” said that one-fifth of his investment holdings are tied up in cryptocurrencies and companies operating in the nascent digital asset industry. “I have millions of dollars. Twenty percent of my portfolio is now in cryptocurrencies and blockchain,” O’Leary said. He added that he likes to diversify and owns Ethereum, Solana, Helium, and Avalanche.

Crypto Prices 

In the cryptocurrency market, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) was up by 0.36 per cent in the last 24 hours, while it was trading at $39,177.15 at 4:30 pm IST. Its dominance in the crypto market is currently at 42.5 per cent, up by 0.13 per cent in the last 24 hours, according to Coinmarketcap.com. 

In the last 24 hours, Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $2,584.94, down 0.61 per cent, while Binance Coin (BNB) rose 1.25 per cent to $377.48. Solana (SOL) was down by 0.81 per cent to $81.24 and Cardano (ADA) was down by 0.79 per cent to $0.7962. 

Meme Coins

Among meme coins, Dogecoin was down by 0.03 per cent and was trading at $0.1165 at 4:30 pm on Coinmarketcap.com. Rival Shiba Inu was up by 0.37 percent in the last 24 hours and was trading at $0.00002244. 

Dogelon Mars was up 0.24 percent and trading at $0.0000007051, while Samoyedcoin was up 0.26 percent and trading at $0.0184 in the last 24 hours.

Overall Scenario 

The global crypto market cap was at $1.75 trillion, registering an increase of 0.06 percent in the last 24 hours, while the total crypto market volume was $76.03 billion, down by 5.70 percent. 

Crypto Facilities, a fully-owned subsidy of popular crypto exchange Kraken has got the approval of the top financial regulators in the UK. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued an MLR license which indicates that Crypto Facilities is now compliant with the UK’s anti-money laundering regulations, making it one of the selected few crypto companies to have got FCA’s clearance.

The clearance comes as a huge relief for the Kraken exchange in particular as it would allow the firm to offer crypto derivatives services in the country via its subsidiary. The FCA has tightened its grip around unregulated crypto derivative products forcing many mainstream crypto exchanges to withdraw derivative services. Now, Kraken would be among the very few crypto platforms to offer the derivatives services giving it a necessary market push.

Crypto Facilities CEO Gary Worrall said,

“It paves the way for us to enhance and expand our offering, ensuring clients have access to the various exposures that best fit their investment needs,”

Apart from Kraken-owned Crypto Facilities, Mode Global Holdings, two Gemini entities, Archax, Ziglu, and Digivault, and the custody business of Diginex have also received to get an MLR license.

Governments Are Introducing Stricter Crypto Policy

The Crypto market might have come a long way in 2021 both in terms of adoption and valuations, but governments around the globe remain skeptical. This is the reason governments around the globe are working towards introducing stricter policies around the crypto market. The US government passed the controversial infrastructure bill despite wide protests from the crypto community as well as several senators themselves.

The likes of China, Russia, Nigeria, and a few others have also outright banned the use of digital assets in their financial system. However, small nations such as El Salvador which has made Bitcoin a legal tender this September are already reaping the benefits of a decentralized currency. The President of the country Nayib Bukele has bought BTC in September at a discounted price and now that the BTC is near ATH, he is using the profits to build schools and hospitals.

About Author

An engineering graduate, Prashant focuses on UK and Indian markets. As a crypto-journalist, his interests lie in blockchain technology adoption across emerging economies.