Crypto markets react to Binance’s battle with CFTC

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) took legal action against the largest crypto exchange, Binance, on March 27. Consequently, the digital asset market has been showing bearish signs.

As the debate gets more sizzling among the crypto community, the top three cryptocurrencies have been witnessing notable drops in their prices. For instance, bitcoin (BTC) has dropped 3.2% in the past 24 hours and is trading at $27,133 at the time of writing. 

The BTC price drop comes while the number of its holders has been regularly increasing over the last three months. According to Glassnode, wallets holding 0.01 or more bitcoins have reached 11,718,623, marking a new all-time high (ATH).

📈 #Bitcoin $BTC Number of Addresses Holding 0.01+ Coins just reached an ATH of 11,718,623

Previous ATH of 11,716,709 was observed on 25 March 2023

View metric:https://t.co/oyguxpaA2y pic.twitter.com/UzlbvrPVxD

— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) March 28, 2023

The second-largest crypto asset, ethereum (ETH), however, has dropped less than bitcoin. ETH is down by 0.8% in the past 24 hours and currently trading at roughly $1,750. Per Glassnode data, the number of receiving ethereum wallets, with a seven-day median average, has reached the 10,271.375 mark, a five-month-high level.

📈 #Ethereum $ETH Number of Receiving Addresses (7d MA) just reached a 5-month high of 10,271.375

View metric:https://t.co/Vm6VJY2z37 pic.twitter.com/v2wdWgBpD1

— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) March 28, 2023

Moreover, Binance’s native asset, BNB, has not been safe either amid the skirmish with the US regulator. BNB dropped by 6.29% in the past 24 hours, trading at around $308 at the time of writing.

CFTC’s regulatory effort comes a few hours after Binance announced the opening of a web3 hub in Georgia, a country at the intersection of Europe and Asia. 

Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), however, stated the exchange’s global regulatory compliance in a response to the CFTC. He pointed out the platform’s know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) policies.