Markets digest nomination of Kevin Warsh as new Fed chair. Senate Agricultural Committee advances crypto market structure bill
Bitcoin has dropped to lows not seen since April last year as continued risk-off sentiment weighs on markets, according to Simon Peters, cryptoasset market analyst at multi-asset investment platform eToro,.
Approximately $1.5 billion worth of long bitcoin perpetual futures positions were liquidated across Wednesday, Thursday and Friday exacerbating the drop lower to $74,500.
Spot bitcoin ETFs saw $1.49 billion in outflows last week, with Thursday seeing $817.8 million, the fourth largest day for recorded outflows since the spot bitcoin ETFs launched two-years ago.
Altcoins have also been hit hard, with the total market capitalization excluding bitcoin falling 11% to $1.02 trillion.
Markets are also digesting the nomination of Kevin Warsh as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve, a more hawkish pick versus the other candidates who were on Trump’s shortlist. Warsh has been critical of quantitative easing, viewing it as a distortionary tool that favours ‘Wall Street’ over ‘Main Street’.
Looking ahead to this week, we have the latest non-farm payroll figures and the unemployment rate being released, which could cause some further volatility in markets.
Today, the White House is reportedly meeting with top crypto and banking executives to find an agreement over allowing digital asset service providers to pay interest on stablecoin holdings and move forward with the Senate Banking Committee’s crypto market structure bill. More on the CLARITY Act and advancement in crypto regulation in the US below.
BIGGEST MOVERS
$HYPE, the native token for the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange, was up 39% last week due to significant increases in commodities trading volume and its deflationary buy back mechanism, which automatically buys back HYPE using its received trading fees, creating a powerful supply-demand feedback loop and pushing HYPE prices higher.
Discover more here: https://www.etoro.com/discover/markets/cryptocurrencies/market-movers
EYE-CATCHING STORIES
Senate Agricultural Committee advances crypto market structure bill
The United States took a step closer to having a regulatory framework for digital assets last week as the Senate Agriculture Committee advanced its version of the crypto market structure bill on a narrow party-line vote of 12-11.
The passing of the Senate Agricultural Committee bill now brings cryptoassets that are classified as digital commodities (such as bitcoin) under the remit of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Key figures in the crypto industry as well as the White House have taken to X to praise the Senate Agricultural Committee for advancing their bill.
The Senate Agricultural Committee bill must now be merged with the Senate Banking Committee’s version, however this has stalled due to disagreements over allowing digital asset service providers to pay interest on stablecoin holdings, with key players in the crypto industry withdrawing their support for this bill in its current version.
The White House is reportedly meeting with crypto and banking executives today to find a middle ground and move forward with the bill.
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