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Altcoin trading is limping along, despite initially getting a boost from a key July court ruling that gave Ripple a partial victory over the Securities and Exchange Commission. Altcoin trade volume — which excludes bitcoin, ether and Ripple’s XRP — has struggled to reclaim pre-May levels, according to crypto data firm Kaiko. The Ripple ruling came July 13 and fueled a sharp, broad crypto market rally as it gave investors hope that if XRP may not always be deemed a security, then the same may apply to altcoins. That “marginal” risk reduction is reflected in the bitcoin dominance , a measure of how much of it makes up the total cryptocurrency market cap, said Jeff Park, head of alpha strategies at Bitwise Asset Management. Bitcoin dominance is still off the July 12 high of the year, according to Glassnode, having weakened after altcoins surged the following day. However, this is not a strong enough narrative to take over the broader theme of deterioration in crypto market structure, said Park added. “The top 10 traded altcoins by dollar volume are still heavily skewed toward the tokens that are actively under investigation by the SEC – including Solana , Polygon , and perhaps most importantly, BNB ,” he told CNBC. “If you focus on the extraordinary role that BNB and Binance Launchpad played in the altcoin ecosystem, it is perhaps not a surprise that the ongoing downfall of Binance is tempering trading interests.” Stablecoins, whose values are pegged to another currency, are often used to trade in and out of other crypto assets. Since they don’t enter the traditional financial system, they allow traders to enter and exit positions faster and more cheaply compared with dealing with fiat currencies like the dollar. BNB is a token created and issued by Binance and is used to pay transaction and trading fees on the Binance exchange. It’s the third largest crypto asset by market cap, excluding stablecoins, according to CryptoQuant. Earlier this summer, the SEC sued Binance , which operates the largest crypto exchange in the world. The securities regulator alleged the company and its co-founder, Changpeng Zhao, comingled billions of dollars of investor funds with their own and violated securities laws. Further back, in February, New York state regulators ordered Paxos to stop minting new Binance USD (BUSD) tokens “as a result of several unresolved issues related to Paxos’ oversight of its relationship with Binance.” BUSD is the third largest stablecoin on the market, but has been in steep decline this year. “While there has been a slow decrease of stablecoin supply since the beginning of the year, a precipitous fall in BUSD’s supply – over 80% in the past year – is notable,” Park said. “This has serious implications for altcoin trading, as the shift in focus to alternatives like FDUSD or TUSD has created a bottleneck for pairs trading that is often how altcoin liquidity is gauged and accessed,” he added. “At its peak, there were over 300 BUSD trading pairs and the number is steadily decreasing as BUSD is ceasing its operations.” The next phase for altcoins Altcoins are in the same boat as bitcoin , however, when it comes to bringing life back to the market. Even with specific narratives driving XRP, BNB and Binance USD, the crypto market is under immense regulatory scrutiny that’s keeping out the new investors needed to push the market to new highs. Wolfe Research’s Rob Ginsberg noted this week that weak price action and low trading volume largely define the trading of altcoins in the current market. They’re trading “horribly” as they “still can’t seem to benefit from any bitcoin rallies,” despite having some individual positive catalysts, he said. Seasonality remains a factor, too. Crypto is entering the final month of a seasonally weak quarter, while the fourth quarter tends to see more positive action. “This could turn around as traders return to the market in September after the summer,” said Dessislava Aubert, an analyst at Kaiko. “However, the overall macro backdrop remains challenging for risk assets given some disappointing data out of China over the past weeks and the ongoing Fed quantitative tightening – and altcoins are sensitive to swings in risk sentiment. “Overall for things to change, we need capital to start flowing into the space,” she added. “A spot BTC ETF could serve as a catalyst but is still months away.” —CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
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