Bitcoin is under pressure again while XRP (XRP) teeters near $1 amid a cluster of unfriendly developments over the past 24 hours.
Regulatory setbacks are leading the charge. Progress on the Clarity Act has stalled in the Senate, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission (SEC) is reportedly set to further delay its long-anticipated "innovation exemption.” That rule is meant to make it easier to trade tokenized securities on blockchain networks under current securities laws.
What prompted the pullback is concerns from both the White House and Wall Street over the proposal’s legal footing and potential impact on the market.
The bad news doesn't stop there. The SEC's parallel "Reg Crypto" effort to create fundraising rules for token projects has been delayed as well. The agency abruptly postponed Friday's planned open meeting on the matter, offering no new date.
MSCI, one of the world’s largest index providers, has opened a consultation proposing to remove non-operating companies from its equity indices, naming Bitcoin holders Strategy and Metaplanet among those targeted for deletion.
Fund flows aren't helping either. Spot bitcoin ETFs are bleeding again, with U.S.-listed funds shedding $333 million in net outflows so far this week. That reverses course from last week's $853 million of inflows, which had hinted at returning institutional demand. On a year-to-date basis, investors have yanked over $4 billion from these funds.
Meanwhile, adding to the pressure are Treasury notes, which underpin global finance. On Thursday, a $25 billion auction of the U.S. 30-year note drew yields as high as 5.22%, according to the Treasury Department, a level some dealers called the highest since 2001. Rising long-term yields make capital costlier and raise the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like bitcoin, a dynamic that compounds an already shaky backdrop.
Taken together, stalled legislation, weak ETF demand and climbing yields suggest little room for an outright rally in cryptocurrencies, leaving majors such as XRP fragile.
The payments-focused cryptocurrency has somehow managed to hold on to the $1 support, which, if breached, could prompt holders to sell their coins. A large number of traders likely accumulated coins below this level in late 2024, anticipating a
That combination helps explain why XRP's grip on $1 and bitcoin's hold on its multi-week range both look increasingly fragile heading into the next session.
Observers continue to watch the broader market picture, anticipating a strong rally in the final months of the year.
“Fundamentals and price action are aligning: in July, the total crypto market outperformed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq‑100 by 7.5 percentage points and 14.2 percentage points, respectively,” Matt Mena, Senior crypto research strategist at 21shares, said in an email.
“That sets the stage for a strong third quarter and a potentially explosive fourth, in which $100,000 bitcoin, $3,000 ether, $70 HYPE and $110 SOL all come into view,” Mena added.