Crypto Markets Hit Hard By SEC Decision, Buterin Comments

Investing, News | September 10, 2018 By:

A jittery cryptocurrency market was further spooked over the weekend, as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suspended trading in two exchange-backed coins.

The SEC announced on Sunday the temporary suspension of trading in the securities Bitcoin Tracker One (CXBTF) and Ether Tracker One (CETHF), commencing on September 9 and terminating on September 20. The two exchange-traded note (ETN) products was issued by XBT Provider AB, a Swedish company headquartered in Stockholm.

The ETNs, launched in 2015 on the Nasdaq Stockholm Exchange, recently started quoting in US dollars. Previously, these products was available only in euros or Swedish krona. The products provide a daily return approximately equivalent to the performance of bitcoin and ethereum across the three most liquid digital exchanges as selected by XBT, before fees and costs.

The SEC said its decision was in “the public interest.”

The fallout of that decision sent bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies back down this morning. At mid-morning, bitcoin was at the $6,300 level, a drop of about one and a half percent. Trading volume was light, indicating a full-blown panic was not in the offing today.

However, ether took on water and dipped below $200, down about three percent and an ominous sign for the coin, which has been struggling, but was over $300 in the last two weeks.

The slump may be attributable to pessimistic remarks from ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin, who said the days of explosive growth in the blockchain industry had probably already come and gone. Buterin was speaking at a conference in Hong Kong and made the remarks to Bloomberg News.

Bitcoin market highlights for the 24 hours ending September 10, 2018 at 1:00 pm US Eastern Time

The highest price seen was $6,597.43 on the CoinsBank exchange at 4:37 pm yesterday. CoinsBank saw $14,822,409 of bitcoin change hands.

The lowest price seen was $5,861.77 on CoinsBank’s exchange at 3:31 am today. CoinsBank’s 24 hour volume was $14,822,409.

The average price on the surveyed exchanges, as weighed by volume, was $6,326.46.

Volatility was a bit lower than average, with the BlockTribune Volatility Index coming in at 45.0. A higher number indicates greater price volatility with 50 describing an average day.

These statistics were consolidated from 23 different exchanges. It includes only BTC/USD trades and only on those exchanges that had at least 1% of the total volume of BTC/USD trades during the measurement period.