After a week of adverse regulatory news and macroeconomic events, bitcoin has held fairly strong. The cryptocurrency is up 3% on the week and has managed to hold the $28,000 mark on Friday after reaching highs of $28,700 earlier in the week. Ether gained 2% on the day and reached $1,800 earlier in the week for the first time since August. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday urged investors to exercise caution when investing in crypto assets and issued a Wells Notice to crypto exchange Coinbase earlier in the week. Coinbase's stock slumped as much as 20% in early trading Thursday following the news.
Federal prosecutors in New York charged Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon with fraud hours after he was arrested by police in Montenegro. "Montenegrin police have detained a person suspected of being one of the most wanted fugitives, South Korean citizen Do Kwon, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based Terraform Labs," Montenegro's minister of interior, Filip Adzic, tweeted Thursday. Kwon has been the target of several investigations and was even on Interpol's red notice after stablecoin terraUSD (UST) and its $40 billion ecosystem imploded last year, sending shockwaves across the crypto markets.
Some Binance employees and trained "volunteers" are helping users in China and other countries evade Binance's Know Your Customer (KYC) controls, CNBC reported Wednesday, citing Chinese-language messages from a Binance-controlled Discord server and Telegram group. The message group participants, called "Angels," share techniques such as forging bank documents, falsifying addresses and hiding the country of origin to allow users to bypass controls and obtain a Binance debit card, according to the report. China banned crypto exchanges in 2017 and cryptocurrencies altogether in 2021.
Chart of the day
The chart shows liquidity in the Bitcoin market, as measured by a metric called the 2% market depth – a collection of buy and sell orders within 2% of the mid-price.
The market depth has dropped to 10-month lows, indicating a tough time for traders looking to execute large buy and sell orders at stable prices.
"The closure of Silvergate exchange network and wind-down of Signature bank's real-time crypto payment network, some of the only USD payment rails for crypto, resulted in U.S exchanges being harder hit from a liquidity standpoint as market makers in the region face unprecedented challenges to their operations," Connor Ryder, research analyst at Kaiko, wrote in a market update.
All writers’ opinions are their own and do not constitute financial advice in any way whatsoever. Nothing published by CoinDesk constitutes an investment recommendation, nor should any data or Content published by CoinDesk be relied upon for any investment activities. CoinDesk strongly recommends that you perform your own independent research and/or speak with a qualified investment professional before making any financial decisions.
Recommended Content
Editors’ Picks
![Ethereum has lost its “ultra” sound money status, faces key rectangle resistance hurdle](https://editorial.fxstreet.com/images/Markets/Currencies/Digital%20Currencies/Ethereum/Ethereum_Coins_31_03_XtraSmall.jpg)
Ethereum has lost its “ultra” sound money status, faces key rectangle resistance hurdle
Ethereum is up 0.5% on Thursday following a recent analysis showing that the top altcoin lost its "ultra" sound money narrative. Meanwhile, ETH ETFs recorded net inflows for the first time after nine days of consecutive outflows.
![Solana bears dominate market as SunPump has potentially led to less demand for SOL](https://editorial.fxstreet.com/images/Markets/Currencies/Cryptocurrencies/Solana/Solana_Crypto_31_XtraSmall.jpg)
Solana bears dominate market as SunPump has potentially led to less demand for SOL
Solana is down 2.5% on Thursday following bearish signals across its funding rate and total fees captured. SOL's weak performance could also be linked to the declining traction seen in its meme coin generation platform Pump.fun.
![AI tokens see narrow gains as Wall Street banks raise price targets on NVDA](https://editorial.fxstreet.com/images/Markets/Currencies/Cryptocurrencies/PEPE/PEPE_coin_2_XtraSmall.jpg)
AI tokens see narrow gains as Wall Street banks raise price targets on NVDA
AI tokens NEAR, ICP, RENDER and TAO briefly traded in the green on Thursday following Wall Street banks' positivity toward Nvidia's earnings report. While a correction followed, these tokens could rally if NVDA meets expectations.
![XRP back above $0.57 even as Ripple traders take $8 million in profits](https://editorial.fxstreet.com/images/Markets/Currencies/Cryptocurrencies/cryptos_XtraSmall.jpg)
XRP back above $0.57 even as Ripple traders take $8 million in profits
Ripple (XRP) traders have consistently taken profits on their holdings in the last two weeks, per Santiment data. Once again, traders have grabbed $8.36 million in profit so far on Thursday. Typically, profit-taking negatively influences the asset as it increases the selling pressure.
![Bitcoin: Will BTC continue its ongoing decline?](https://editorial.fxstreet.com/images/Markets/Currencies/Digital%20Currencies/Bitcoin/bitcoin_5_XtraSmall.jpg)
Bitcoin: Will BTC continue its ongoing decline?
Bitcoin (BTC) trades above $59,000 on Friday, but it has lost 7.5% this week so far after being rejected around the daily resistance of $65,000. The decline is supported by lower demand from the US spot Bitcoin ETFs, which registered a net outflow of $103.8 million, falling Bitcoin's Coinbase Premium Index, and a spike in Network Realized Profit/Loss. However, some investors seem to be taking the chance to buy BTC amid this price dip, as shown by the Exchange Netflow data.
![Moneta Markets review 2024: All you need to know](https://editorial.fxstreet.com/images/IT/Testing/Review/FXSBadgeCertifiedBackg_XtraSmall.png)
Moneta Markets review 2024: All you need to know
VERIFIED In this review, the FXStreet team provides an independent and thorough analysis based on direct testing and real experiences with Moneta Markets – an excellent broker for novice to intermediate forex traders who want to broaden their knowledge base.