Crypto News: Bringing you a roundup of what happened in the crypto space this week. A prominent analyst said that the rise of Bitcoin (BTC) is imminent, and the only potential obstacle is the SEC's rejection of BlackRock's Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency community celebrated the early exit of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
Also making headlines this week were U.S. banks’ heavy tilt toward debt markets and warnings from Vietnamese authorities about the growing complexity of the Pi network.
Prominent Crypto Analyst Favors Upward Trend, Says BTC Is Unlikely to Fall Back to $25,000
On Thursday, cryptocurrency analyst Josh Rager predicted that Bitcoin is unlikely to fall back to $25,000 in the short term. He said speculation about a pullback to $24,000 is circulating, but such predictions are over-thought-out.
Still, one scenario could cause pain if the SEC rejects BlackRock’s application to launch a spot BTC exchange-traded fund.
The analyst said Bitcoin could fall below $30,000, but he prefers to rise first and expects the SEC to approve the ETF. BTC has been unable to break through the $31,000 resistance level since June 21.
Crypto and BTC hopes dashed as SEC Chairman Gary Gensler resigns
Turning to the SEC, hopes of Chairman Gary Gensler resigning were dashed after an early report was found to be false.
Over the weekend, several smaller cryptocurrency news outlets cited internal sources as saying that Gensler, the SEC chairman who has cracked down on several high-profile companies for allegedly violating U.S. securities laws and repeatedly rejected calls for new rules to govern the industry, had resigned.
After SEC PR confirmed that the story was false, about $15 billion re-entered the cryptocurrency market.
Its market cap currently stands at $1.17 trillion, according to market data aggregator CoinMarketCap.
U.S. banks sitting on a debt time bomb
Staying in the US, industry-leading commentary in the Kobeisi Letter suggests that US banks could be a ticking time bomb.
Despite the Fed’s claims that the banking crisis is over, sources say Bank of America’s $100 billion investment in the U.S. bond market is a liquidity crisis waiting to happen.
"Bank of America claims it's not a problem because they're not looking to sell. Sound familiar? That's because it is. Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic both went out of business because of this."
In addition, the bank used deposits during the pandemic to buy $670 billion worth of bonds when yields were low and prices were high. Any severe bank run could cause Bank of America to sell these bonds at a huge loss, similar to what happened to Silicon Valley Bank earlier this year.
Read about the 2023 US banking crisis here .
Bank of America also has the highest paper losses of any of the largest major U.S. banks, something Kobeissi hopes the bank will never realize.
This year, the Federal Reserve has provided $107 billion in support to small banks, which has also led to debt distress among small banks.
Memes surge as anticipation grows for new Wall Street token
Memecoin PEPE rose 17% on Monday, and its derivative PEPE 2.0 rose 36%. Market data showed that PEPE trading volume rose to $182 million that day, up 103% from the previous day. The number of wallet addresses holding PEPE also increased that day.
Wall Street Memes also raised $12 million in pre-sale funds in just over a month. Investors are excited that the token will soon be listed on centralized exchanges.
Vietnamese police sound alert on Pi Network
Vietnamese officials this week expressed concern that the Pi network has become “extremely complex and difficult to manage.”
Pi, which launched in India and Vietnam in 2019 and grew in popularity during the 2021 bull run, allows people to mine Pi tokens using their mobile phones.
Authorities in the Southeast Asian country have warned that some influencers have attracted supporters through multi-level marketing schemes.
Furthermore, the blockchain does not appear to have any use other than exchanging Pi tokens. No exchanges list the currency, and the cryptocurrency is not legal tender in Vietnam.
This Week in NFT News: Azuki Elementals Drives Market South
In NFT news this week, investors openly admitted to low liquidity and no plans to buy despite lower token prices.
Azuki’s Elementals mint, minted on June 27, should have been a catalyst for a market turnaround, but instead drove prices to historic lows. After the team made $37 million, the price of the series fell to a floor of 5.8 ETH in seven days.
Ethereum sales have been trending down over the last week, while Solana’s new SMB Barrel Raffle sales have been up.
This week, the series beat out Ethereum’s blue chip series, Bored Ape Yacht Club. SMB Barrel Raffle sales increased 176% to $21.7 million over the past seven days, while BAYC sales were just over $18.1 million.
Top 5 performing altcoins of the week while BTC struggles to break $31,000
The biggest gainers this week were MKR and XEC, which broke through the key diagonal resistance level. However, they have yet to clear the major horizontal resistance area.
On July 5, MKR hit a yearly high of $1,080, while XEC struggled to overcome selling pressure and remained below $0.000041.
Top 10 cryptocurrencies of the week, BTC remains below $31,000 | Source: BeInCryptoFXS has broken above the 144-day descending resistance line but has yet to accelerate its upward movement.
FLOW and BIT are lingering at key resistance levels, and the failure to break through does not bode well for future trends. BIT hit the 0.618 retracement level on June 27 and is currently trading at around $0.4609. Meanwhile, FLOW is trading between $0.50 and $0.75.
The 5 Worst Performing Cryptocurrencies of the Week
Considering the bearish behavior, Yuga Labs’ DAO governance token Ape fell to a new all-time low of $1.83 on July 5. FTM and XLM rebounded from the key horizontal resistance area and turned lower. The trend of both coins remains bearish.
Despite showing bullish signs, SNX and CFX have yet to confirm any uptrend reversal. They are down 10.9% and 11.5% respectively this week.