The world’s biggest cryptocurrency appears to be unaffected by recent regulatory activity against the crypto sector in the United Kingdom.
Bitcoin value leaped by as much as 8 percent, trading at around $34,580 in New York, trading above key technical levels over the weekend. Watchers also noted positive movement throughout the crypto market in general.
According to a recent report from industry pricing monitor CoinGecko, the total valuation is currently pegged at $1.44 trillion, having shot up by 5%.
This bull rally comes in the wake of a recent ban against Binance Markets Ltd, an affiliate of Binance, one of the world’s leading crypto exchanges. Last June 27th, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA,) one of the UK’s financial regulatory agencies, banned the company from doing any regulated business in the country.
The FCA mandated that any such activities require Binance Markets or its parent company to seek written consent from the regulator beforehand. In addition, the Binance Group is not authorized to do any sort of financial business within the UK, and that it needs to take down all of its promotions by June 30th.
Bitcoin’s China crisis
The Binance incident is one of the most significant developments in the ongoing global crackdown against cryptocurrencies. Still, the sanction imposed by the UK regulator is a slap on the wrist compared to other regulatory activities elsewhere.
China, in particular, is coming in hard against cryptocurrencies in its part of the world. On Monday, June 21st, the Chinese government declared that those using Huobi, one of the country’s most popular cryptocurrency platforms, are forbidden from trading derivatives.
The nation has not yet declared an all-out ban against cryptocurrencies. However, government regulators issued stern warnings in May of this year against trading and mining cryptocurrencies.
The country’s leading banks have also been ordered to stop dealing in crypto, after reiterating laws prohibiting the involvement of such financial institutions in cryptocurrency transactions.
This hardline approach against any form of cryptocurrency transaction follows in the wake of numerous allegations that crypto tokens are being used in illegal activities such as money laundering and fraud. In addition, cryptocurrency’s volatile prices in the global market have also been a cause for concern in China and the rest of the world.
Are we in a bull run?
But many market watchers – known as crypto bulls – do not see these crackdowns as a negative thing. Indeed, these are collectively being taken as a sign that the market is maturing. Further encouragement also came from Bitcoin’s recent failure to breach the $30,000 support level between June 25 and 27.
Vijay Ayyar, head of the Asia-Pacific division at crypto exchange Luno Pte, opines that the increase of downward pressure on prices being defended makes the current market situation bullish.
Ayyar stated that Bitcoin had held itself at $30,000 level despite several tests within the previous month.
Still, Bitcoin has lost a considerable percentage – practically half – of its value over the past couple of months. A few factors responsible include mounting concerns regarding its environmental impact and international regulators putting the heat on the industry.
Bitcoin hit a record close to $65,000 last April – but Ayyar says it’s too early to declare an all-clear. In his opinion, one more push down to $30,000 may not hold given how many times it has been tested.
“There’s only so much liquidity there,” he says, adding that post-$30,000, market watchers should see around $24,000 to $25,000.
