Bitcoin seemed to have lost direction after strong gains earlier this month, but was holding above US$30,000 on Tuesday morning trading in Asia. Most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies fell after a week of rallies driven by crypto-related exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications in the U.S. Solana led the losers, while Tron managed a marginal gain. Stocks closed lower on Monday in the U.S. as investors focused on the outlook for interest rates and market risk after the aborted military mutiny in Russia over the weekend.
Bitcoin, Ether fall
Bitcoin slid 0.88% to US$30,254 over the last 24 hours to 6:45 a.m. in Hong Kong, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is still posting a gain of 12.89% over the past seven days.
Ether fell 2.22% to US$1,859, but is up 7.18% for the week.
Nearly all top 10 non-stablecoin cryptos dropped with the exception of Tron, which edged up 0.63% in the past day.
Solana was the biggest loser among the top 10, slumping 5% to reduce its gain for the week to 1.52%.
Markus Thielen, head of crypto research and strategy at digital asset service platform Matrixport, said in a Monday note that Bitcoin could see more gains in July.
“July tends to be a strong month for Bitcoin when prices have finished positive in seven out of the last 10 years, with average returns of 11%,” Thielen said. “The 2020, 2021 and 2022 returns were 24%, 20% and 27%, respectively. Hence, Bitcoin could be at US$33,000 to US$36,000 by August.”
Thielen added that Bitcoin has the strongest rallies during U.S. trading hours. “Claiming that ‘crypto is dead in the U.S.’ appears to be a misconception,” he said.
Meanwhile, on Monday, a U.S. federal judge denied crypto exchange Binance’s request for the court to order the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) to change the language used in a press release on the exchange’s handling of customer assets.
As part of the lawsuit the SEC filed against Binance earlier this month, D.C. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled Monday that it is not necessary or appropriate for the court to get involved in wordsmithing the parties’ press releases.
“Nor is it clear that the agency’s public relations efforts to date will materially affect proceedings in this case,” Judge Jackson wrote in the order.
The BNB token issued by Binance fell 1.3% over the past 24 hours and lost 2.91% for the week.
