Why is crypto down today? The UK Sees Its First Crypto ATM Conviction Crypto Derivatives Market Recovers Amidst Positive Sentiment Stablecoin Market Cap Records 12th Consecutive Monthly Increase
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Why is crypto down today?
The global cryptocurrency market capitalization has decreased by 2% over the past 24 hours to $2.38 trillion.
The total crypto trading volume in this timeframe is $79.9 billion.
Currently, the largest gainers are the Polkadot ecosystem and Algorand ecosystem cryptocurrencies.
Most coins in the top 100 category are down today.
Shiba Inu (SHIB) fell the most, seeing a 4.1% drop to $0.00001873.
It’s followed by Dogecoin (DOGE)’s 2.8% and Notcoin (NOT)’s 2.6 decrease.
The green coins have seen higher gains in comparison.
Conflux (CFX) is the best performer in this category, having recorded an 11% increase and trading at $0.1956.
Bittensor (TAO) is next, with a 10.3% increase to $594.78.
Other green coins are up 9% and less each.
Looking at the top 10 coins per market cap, however, we find three of them down, and five up.
The top gainer is XRP. It appreciated 3.2, currently trading at $0.64376.
Solana (SOL) follows with a 1.3% rise to the price of $157.7.
Ethereum (ETH) is also green, but its percentage is so low that the price remains unchanged at $2,643.
On the other hand, Bitcoin (BTC) decreased by 1.4% over the past day to $64,630.
Meanwhile, the US market for spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw a shift in investor sentiment and the largest weekly inflows recorded since early August.
They recorded inflows totaling $58.7 million on Friday alone, resulting in a net positive inflow of $84.5 million for the week. Hence, it broke a six-week cycle of net outflows.
The UK Sees Its First Crypto ATM Conviction
In crypto news today, a person named Olumide Osunkoya (1979) pleaded guilty to five offenses related to illegally operating a crypto ATM network in the UK.
He is to be sentenced for running multiple crypto ATMs without FCA registration, creating and using false documents, and possession of criminal property.
According to a Monday press release by the Financial Conduct Authority(FCA), Osunkoya illegally operated at least eleven crypto ATMs that processed more than £2.6 million in crypto transactions between December 2021 and September 2023.
He operated and further grew the network in convenience shops across the UK. This is despite a refusal for registration with the FCA issued in 2021.
Per the announcement, “the charges mark the FCA’s first criminal prosecution relating to unregistered cryptoasset activity under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds […] Regulations 2017 (MLRs).”
“These are also the first charges brought against a person accused of running a network of crypto ATMs in the UK,” it said.
Osunkoya didn’t complete any customer due diligence or source of funds checks, while some evidence showed that the machines were used by people “likely committing money laundering or tax evasion,” the FCA said.
Additionally, he allegedly created a false alias to try and evade FCA rules and has made “substantial profit” from the operation.
Spot prices for BTC and ETH have responded to this news positively, it said.
While futures trade volumes dropped from $16 million–$20 million in early September to about $6.7 million, futures open interest is stable.
This indicates that “traders are maintaining their positions, particularly in longer-dated expirations,” the researchers say.
Source: Bybit, Block Scholes
Furthermore, perpetual swap open interest is stable with “limited fluctuations.”
Its September levels were somewhat lower, but it has returned to the August level, “particularly spiking around the interest rate cut date.”
The report concluded that, “overall, while trading activity is robust, open interest remains strong, indicating that traders are holding onto their positions.”
Additionally, short tenors are currently more prominent than longer-dated options, and open interest for calls is slowly recovering.
“Implied volatility for at-the-money short-dated options has fluctuated downward, suggesting an increasingly positive outlook for the derivatives market in the short term,” the report noted.
Stablecoin Market Cap Records 12th Consecutive Monthly Increase
In other crypto news today, the total market capitalization of stablecoins recorded the twelfth consecutive monthly increase in September, according to the latest report by cryptocurrency market data provider CCData.
It is up 1.5% to $172 billion.
This is the highest stablecoin market capitalization since April 2022, it said.
Source: CCData
Tether (USDT)hit a new all-time high of $119 billion, keeping its dominance at 69.2%.
Additionally, the report noted that the top five centralized stablecoins hold nearly $125 billion in US Treasury Bills combined, which is some 80.2% of their reserves.
Keeping this in mind, the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut for the first time since March 2020 will result in $625 million “in lost annual interest income for each 50bps cut,” the analysts said.
Source: CCData
Tether is the largest coin per market cap. Notably, it holds $93.2 billion in US Treasury bills and repurchase agreements.
This, said the report, “contributed to the majority” of the $5.2 billion net profit in the first half of this year.
USDC holds US Treasury assets worth $28.7 billion.
FDUSD, PYUSD, and TUSD follow, with $1.83 billion, $634 million, and $502 million in US Treasury bills, respectively.
