Overview of Bitcoin Price Struggles
- Bitcoin price briefly tested $29,130 on April 17, but quickly recovered to reclaim the $30,000 support.
- Traders remain wary of regulatory risks due to recent comments from the CFTC and SEC chair.
- Hong Kong has made some progress in crypto regulation with state-affiliated banks onboarding crypto companies.
Chairman of Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Comments
On April 14, Rostin Behnam, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said that Binance intentionally broke U.S. rules concerning futures and commodities trading. He alleged that it knowingly allowed U.S. citizens to trade on the exchange through the use of obfuscation tools. This statement was made in response to CFTC’s March 27 lawsuit against Binance and its CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao for alleged trading violations.
U.S Securities and Exchange Commission Meeting and Proposed Redefinition of an “Exchange”
At an open meeting with U.S Securities and Exchange commissioners and staff on April 14, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said that the agency intends to bring certain brokers under additional regulatory scrutiny as well as explicitly include decentralized applications when revisiting their proposed redefinition of an “exchange”.