WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Cryptocurrencies are firm above the flatline amidst renewed regulatory jitters from the U.S. government. Prosecutors for the U.S. government have sought to sentence Changpeng Zhao, the founder, owner and former CEO of Binance cryptocurrency exchange to 36 months in prison and a $50 million fine. Also, the Securities and Exchange Commission has sought to impose $5.3 billion in fines from Terraform Labs and its CEO Do Kwon for the implosion of the Terra ecosystem in 2022.
Overall crypto market capitalization is at $2.46 trillion versus $2.43 trillion a day earlier.
Bitcoin edged up 0.12 percent in the past 24 hours to trade at $66,178.32, around 10 percent below the all-time-high. The 24-hour trading range was between $67,148.55 and $66,025.30. Bitcoin is holding on to weekly gains of 6.1 percent and year-to-date gains of 56 percent. Bitcoin currently dominates 53.2 percent of the overall crypto market.
Latest data from Farside Investors shows net inflows declining to $31.6 million on Tuesday, from $62.2 million on Monday. The net cumulative Bitcoin Spot ETF inflows have increased to $12.4 billion. Considering the cumulative outflows of $16.8 billion from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the gross inflows to the 9 Bitcoin Spot ETFs that debuted in 2024 is close to $29.2 billion.
iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) topped with cumulative inflows of $15.5 billion. Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust (FBTC) followed with cumulative inflows of $8.2 billion. ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) witnessed inflows of $2.3 billion whereas Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) has recorded cumulative inflows of $1.8 billion.
Ethereum rallied 2.6 percent in the past 24 hours to trade at $3,264.10. The 24-hour trading range was between $3,292.92 and $3,177.62. Ether is holding on to weekly gains of 7.5 percent and year-to-date gains of 43 percent. Ether currently dominates 16.3 percent of the overall crypto market.
4th ranked BNB (BNB) edged up 0.47 percent overnight to trade at $608.54. The price movement comes amidst prosecutors for the U.S. government seeking a higher-than-normal sentence for Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance.com.
In a filing before the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Washington on April 23, the U.S. government has sought a prison sentence for Zhao that is much higher than the period of 12-18 months contemplated in the relevant guidelines. According to the regulatory filing, Zhao's willful violation of U.S. law was no accident or oversight. The prosecutors claimed that despite knowing that Binance was required to comply with U.S. law, Zhao chose not to register the company with U.S. regulators; he chose not to comply with fundamental U.S. anti-money-laundering requirements; he chose not to implement and maintain an effective know-your-customer system, which prevented effective transaction monitoring and allowed suspicious and criminal users to transact through Binance; and suspicious transactions were also not reported to U.S. authorities.
The prosecution has claimed that given the magnitude of Zhao's willful violation of U.S. law and its consequences, a higher sentence of 36 months is warranted. The prosecutors also claimed that the upward variance was further justified by the need for Zhao's sentence to reflect the significant harm to U.S national security caused by his criminal acts. They also argued that a custodial sentence of 36 months would reflect the seriousness of the offense, promote respect for law, afford adequate deterrence, and be sufficient but not greater than necessary to achieve the goals of sentencing.
5th ranked Solana (SOL) gained close to 2 percent in the past 24 hours to trade at $157.79.
7th ranked XRP (XRP) slipped 0.78 percent overnight to trade at $0.5405. With a loss of more than 12 percent in 2024, XRP is the highest-ranking crypto to trade in the red zone on a year-to-date basis.
8th ranked Dogecoin (DOGE) added 1.5 percent overnight to trade at $0.1608.
9th ranked Toncoin (TON) added 0.84 percent overnight to trade at $5.72. TON is the highest ranking crypto to trade with weekly losses. TON has slipped 7.7 percent in the past week.
10th ranked Cardano (ADA) plunged 3.5 percent overnight to trade at $0.4953, lifting year-to-date losses to 16.6 percent.
24th ranked Hedera (HBAR) topped overnight gains with a surge of close to 55 percent. HBAR has added 74 percent in the past week amidst unconfirmed reports over the HBAR Foundation being associated with the tokenization of BlackRock's Treasury money market Fund. However, it was later clarified that BlackRock had not directly selected HBAR for the tokenization.
59th ranked Bonk (BONK) gained close to 40 percent whereas 36th ranked dogwifhat (WIF) gained almost 24 percent overnight.
77th ranked Akash Network (AKT) slipped 9.8 percent overnight but is holding on to gains of 38 percent in the past week. 96th ranked Gnosis (GNO) slipped 8.2 percent overnight.
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