Cryptocurrencies, led by Bitcoin, continue to rise today, approaching their highest levels since the beginning of September, at $26,540, with gains extending since Monday evening. As for Ethereum, it reached its highest levels this week at $1,638.
These successive rises this week for Bitcoin coincide with a noticeable return in investor sentiment.
According to data provided by CryptoQuant, the number of open interests for Bitcoin derivatives has risen to its highest levels since August 31, reaching the level of 7.525 billion contract at the end of yesterday. The same applies to Ethereum, which has approximately 3.7 billion contracts.
While these positive sentiments came amid more regulatory battles in the United States between regulatory bodies and those working in the field of cryptocurrencies and their various applications.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) imposed a fine of $1 million on Stoner Cats 2 on charges of unauthorized offering of financial instruments. In 2021, the company raised $8 million after selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to finance the production of an animated series.
While the authority based its decision on the fact that the company had promised holders of non-fungible tokens future returns, and this is what qualifies them to be investment instruments.
In light of that fine, we witnessed a comment from the chief lawyer of Ripple Lab, which is still stuck in the courts with the lawsuit filed against it by the SEC years ago, who expressed his astonishment at the basis on which the authority relies when imposing these fines, while he believes that These steps by the Commission are nothing more than a “PR stunt” before the public.
Not long ago, the CEO of the Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, expressed his concerns about the strict measures taken by the SEC as well as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), especially after a series of fines imposed by the CFTC on a number of decentralized finance (DeFi) companies which amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Armstrong fears that these ongoing prosecutions may harm the nation’s interests if this industry is lost or pushed out of the United States abroad. While he also said that companies that are fined should not accept settlement and take the case to the courts, which he believes are actually capable and willing to uphold the rule of law.
As for new products in the cryptocurrency market, we witnessed the conclusion of a memorandum between Islamic Coin and CoinDesk Indices to create an benchmark based on Islamic Sharia standards that can be used to provide tradable financial products. While the founder of Islamic Coin said that this cooperation will reshape the landscape of digital financial services that are compatible with Islamic Sharia.
