Regulation is the main sticking point for crypto as bitcoin hits another new high in 2023.

Bitcoin rallied to start the week, hit a new 2023 high to end it and suffered a brief decline in the meantime, weighed down by Binance’s problems. Bitcoin finished the week up about 4% after hitting a new 2023 high above $38,000 on Friday. Meanwhile, ether gained 8%. Coin Metrics measures a week in crypto, which trades 24 hours a day, from 4:00 p.m. ET on a given Friday to the same time the following Friday. Many events have driven the price higher this week – from the elections in Argentina, the minutes of the last Fed meeting and the updates to the Bitcoin ETF applications, to the Binance settlement and the coup d’état of ‘OpenAI. These elements not only highlighted the nuances of bitcoin’s purpose and identity, but also brought the crypto industry’s long-standing regulatory issues back into focus for investors. “What I would focus on in the short term is the type of news we have on the regulatory side versus what is already being considered by traders,” Zach Pandl, chief executive officer, told CNBC of research at Grayscale Investments. “Are we going to see positive enough news to give us new price highs given how people are already positioned?” BTC.CM = Bitcoin Mountain 1yr, 1yr For the year, bitcoin is up about 130%, even after remaining stuck in a tight range for most of it. Optimism over the likely approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF has grown over the past two months, serving as the biggest catalyst for the cryptocurrency. Pandl (whose company is a key player in the move to launch an ETF with its popular GBTC product) said he believes the market will continue to receive good news on the ETF front. Additionally, as the industry recovers from the black eye FTX gave it this time last year, regulators are learning to separate different market players. “Regulators very clearly separate a variety of issues: on the one hand, bad actors and certain parts of the business. [of crypto] that we do not want to see continue, unlike the asset management community [and] Community ETF, which is just providing a product to the public,” he said. The challenge is that active positioning of crypto traders appears long, he added, based on the activity of crypto futures, options, open interest and funding rates “Although we can “We are hearing more positive news on the prospect of an ETF approval, part of which is integrated. in the price, so things have to happen sooner or more easily so they can gradually move the price,” he said. Meanwhile, Michael Rinko, research analyst at Delphi Digital, said this week’s Binance settlement is evidence of a new narrative forming in crypto regulation, in which the Biden administration could begin viewing cryptography through a lens similar to that in which it views technology areas such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors. It will be a long time before crypto rises to the level of priority as AI, he added, but Binance’s latest development is part of an emerging narrative: “Increasingly, from the point of view of view of the American government, it considers more and more technology. from a national security perspective,” he said. Rinko pointed to examples such as semiconductors and the CHIPS Act and the growing engagement with AI leading to restrictions on some of the top chips of Nvidia’s lineup, and said a similar path could be followed for crypto. A sort of regulatory attack on crypto players is already underway that the United States finds unacceptable, he said. , adding that this would likely divide the crypto world into two spheres “There will be the Western sphere of influence where there will be Coinbase, Kraken and the exchanges that have relationships and ties to the so-called. West, and then there will be the Eastern exchanges which operate outside the influence and control of the United States and its allies and are persona non grata from the American point of view,” he said.

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