The world’s leading cryptocurrency just lost a key resistance level on February 10.
On this date, bitcoin fell from the previously established $23,000 zone, reaching as low as $21,850 at this time of writing.
The asset is going through a 3.48% decrease in the previous 24 hours. On the weekly chart, BTC’s performance is not better. In the previous seven days, the currency lost 7.50% of its value.
In addition, the increase in daily trading volume, going from $15 billion on February 5 to nearly $30 billion as of right now indicates that the cryptocurrency market is under heavy selling pressure.
After going through one of its most profitable months ever in January, bitcoin is now on a retraction period suffering blows from pessimistic news regarding more interest rate rises by the Fed, paired with ongoing reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission is about to drop the hammer on cryptocurrency exchanges.
SEC Goes After Kraken Exchange
Yesterday, an unforeseen development has sent shock-waves through the market as news broke of the SEC launching a probe into cryptocurrency exchange, Kraken, on suspicion of securities violations.
Since the probe, the exchange was forced to completely shut down its “staking-as-a-service” platform for American customers. On top of that, Kraken was forced to pay a $30 million settlement to the commission against the charges of offering unregistered securities in America.
Kraken, in a recent blog post, announced that it will be releasing any assets staked by its U.S. clients, excluding staked ether, which will remain inactive until after the Ethereum Network has undergone its Shanghai upgrade.
Additionally, U.S. clients will not be able to participate in staking any new assets, including ether. This change will not impact clients residing outside of the U.S.
The settlement harshly affected the crypto market due to the possibility of it paving the way for the SEC to go after other crypto-staking services.
There has been a long debate about whether staking should be classified as a security or not.
In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has indicated that certain forms of staking may be considered securities under the federal securities laws, and therefore subject to SEC regulation.
