Cryptos Inch Up as Equities Decline: Markets Wrap

Bitcoin and ethereum made modest gains following remarks from SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who told lawmakers that emerging technologies pose risks to investors. Specifically, Gensler said he was taking a hard look at crypto trading platforms, along with the firms that work with them to execute transactions.

“Frankly, at this time, it’s more like the Wild West or the old world of ‘buyer beware’ that existed before the securities laws were enacted. This asset class is rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications,” Gensler told the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.

Bitcoin rose roughly 3% on-day, trading at $46,605.91, according to Messari. Ethereum was up 2% as well, as of press time.

Elsewhere, Uniswap jumped 10% on-day, with a day-high of $25.38.

Crypto

• Bitcoin is trading around $46,605.91, advancing 2.98% in 24 hours at 4:00 pm ET.
• Ether is trading around $3,352.51, up 1.69% in 24 hours at 4:00 pm ET.
• ETH:BTC is at 0.072, declining -1.41% at 4:00 pm ET.

DeFi

• Terra (LUNA) is trading at $35.22, declining -2.4% and trading volume at $900,123,512 in 24 hours.
• Chainlink (LINK) is trading at $29.01, advancing 6.3% with trading volume at $1,583,365,814 in 24 hours at 4:00 pm ET.
• DeFi:ETH is 32.4% at 4:00 pm ET.

Insight

Noelle Acheson, Head of Market Insights at digital prime brokerage Genesis, commented on the evolution of so-called “Ethereum killers” such as the recent success of Solana and Avalanche.

“The potential for decentralized applications is enormous, and the more participants developing user-friendly solutions, the stronger the ecosystem will be. Blockchain is not, unlike other network technologies, about winner-takes-all, something the ‘Ethereum killer’ conversation overlooks,” Acheson said in an email to Blockworks. “These are relatively agile platforms that evolve according to experience and demand. It’s probable that not all will thrive, but given the development of bridges and other connective functionalities, there does not need to be one dominant solution. Smart contract networks can support each other, allowing the market to choose acceptable trade-offs, and leaving the deciding factor of success to the end users.”

US stocks fell as investors eyed price pressures, the delta virus strain and looming risks of elevated inflation levels. All major Wall Street gauges closed in the red.

Equities

• The Dow was down -0.87% to 34,572.
• S&P 500 declined -0.59% to 4,440.
• Nasdaq shed -0.49% to 15,034.

Commodities

• Brent crude was up to $73.59 per barrel, advancing 0.11%.
• Gold was up 0.66% to $1,806.2.

Currencies

• The US dollar fell -0.04%, according to the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index.

Fixed Income

• US 10-year treasury yields 1.275% as of 4:00 pm ET.

In other news…

Immutable, a layer-2 solution, scored $60 million in a Series B round on Tuesday. Immutable says this round will be mostly used to expand its global engineering and sales team, along with strengthening key partnerships with gaming companies, Blockworks reported. Co-led by BITKRAFT Ventures and King River Capital, the equity round had participation from Alameda Research, Prosus Ventures, Fabric Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, Apex Capital, AirTree Ventures, Reinventure and VaynerFund. 

We are looking out for

• Quadruple witching day for US markets will be on Friday.

That’s it for today’s markets wrap. I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

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