Bitcoin has started the day with a negative dynamic. At press time, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading at $10,495.53 (-3.35%), according to CoinMarketCap.
Chart of the USD/BTC trading pair from EXANTE
For its part, Ethereum has fallen to $342.87 (-5.72%), while XRP has dropped by 3.75% and is now trading at $0.233.
Last night, the crypto market was affected by the news that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had filed a lawsuit against the crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX and its owners, including co-founder and CEO Arthur Hayes.
The agency accuses them of operating an unregistered trading platform and violating the CFTC's customer identification and anti-money laundering rules. The CFTC has stated:
"The complaint charges BitMEX with operating a facility for the trading or processing of swaps without having CFTC approval as a designated contract market or swap execution facility, and operating as a futures commission merchant by soliciting orders for and accepting bitcoin to margin digital asset derivatives transactions, and by acting as a counterparty to leveraged retail commodity transactions. The complaint further charges BitMEX with violating CFTC rules by failing to implement know-your-customer procedures, a customer information program, and anti-money laundering procedures."
According to the regulator, its objective in accusing BitMEX is "the suppression of illegal actions and practices, as well as the harmonization of its procedures for legal compliance with the law."
In addition, the US Department of Justice has accused Hayes, Delo, Reid and BitMEX's head of business development, Gregory Dwyer, of violating bank secrecy laws. The Department of Justice has said that Reed, who is the CTO at BitMEX, has been arrested.
FxPro's team of analysts say:
"The president of the United States and his wife have tested positive for coronavirus. The news has generated a shock wave in all markets at once. The stock, commodity and crypto markets are all falling.
Bitcoin has lost about 4% over the past 24 hours and is currently trading at around $10,400. Almost all altcoins are in red, reacting to the collapse of risk positions in all markets. The greed and fear index for Bitcoin and the major cryptos has lost 4 points in a day to 41, responding moderately to the situation in the market. The RSI for the BTC/USD pair is down for the fourth day in a row, but is far from the 'oversold' area.
Trump's disease alone will not have a lasting effect on the markets if he keeps working remotely and remains visible, however, complications cannot be ruled out, and this scenario could form the basis of a 'perfect storm' in all markets at once."
According to CoinMarketCap’s ranking, all currencies on the top 10 are in red.
As for the market cap of all currencies listed in CoinMarketCap, it stays at $335,620,072,375.
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