In the early hours of January 13, Bitcoin’s price momentarily fell below $42,000. At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency is trading at $43,100.
Top-10 digital assets by market capitalization followed Bitcoin’s lead. Avalanche and Solana saw the largest declines over the past day, losing 7.1% and 5.8% respectively. Market capitalization fell to $1.77 trillion, according to CoinGecko.
On January 12, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized the SEC for approving a Bitcoin ETF.
The @SECgov is wrong on the law and wrong on the policy with respect to the Bitcoin ETF decision.
If the SEC is going to let crypto burrow even deeper into our financial system, then it’s more urgent than ever that crypto follow basic anti-money laundering rules.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) January 11, 2024
“The SEC is wrong on the law and the decision regarding the Bitcoin ETF. If the SEC is going to allow the crypto industry to delve deeper into our financial system, it is more urgent than ever to enforce basic anti-money laundering rules,” she wrote.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler responded on CNBC, stating that he “deeply respects those on the other side.” He also described Bitcoin as a “highly speculative and volatile asset used for money laundering, sanctions evasion, and extortion by criminals.”
Gensler was also asked about the potential approval of a spot ETF based on Ethereum in the future.
“I look at what we did this week, as it relates to one commodity, not a security, called Bitcoin, similar to ETPs on gold and silver in the past. This pertains only to this token-commodity, which is not a security,” Gensler replied.
Previously, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink saw value in a spot Ethereum ETF. In his view, it is “just a stepping stone to tokenization.”
JPMorgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou told The Block that the SEC first needs to classify Ethereum as a commodity, not a security. He estimated the likelihood of this by May at no more than 50%.
According to The Block, on the second day, Bitcoin ETF trading volumes exceeded $3.1 billion. The cumulative figure for two days reached nearly $7.7 billion. The leader was Grayscale’s GBTC ($4.12 billion), followed by BlackRock ($1.57 billion).
Earlier, on January 11, amid the launch of spot Bitcoin ETF trading on U.S. stock exchanges, the price of the leading cryptocurrency surpassed $48,000.
The following day, SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw criticized the approval of the instrument, calling the decision “unfounded and anti-historic.”