Bitcoin (BTC) is having a middling mid-week performance closing half a percent lower on Tuesday and staying dead on US$27,000 in this morning’s trades.
Despite the lack of excitement on the markets, Tuesday was in some way a momentous occasion for the cryptocurrency sector, with the European Council officially signing off on the comprehensive Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislation, creating a unified framework across all member states for regulating the cryptocurrency industry.
Aspects of the legislation, particularly those surrounding identification requirements, will prove highly unpopular among the maximalist contingent on the cryptosphere, but the rules could end up being a positive step in solving the ongoing liquidity crisis.
Unlike their EU counterparts, US lawmakers have adopted a far more heavy-handed, regulation-by-enforcement approach that has created uncertainty among investors and the exchanges that facilitate crypto on-ramps.
With risk appetite among investors in all markets still exceptionally high, a more reliable place to conduct trades could end up being a net positive, at least for spot prices.
For now, subdued bitcoin price action has kept both long and short liquidations to a minimum this week.
Bitcoin (BTC) straddles the 27k line – Source: currency.com
Short-term price levels to consider are US$26,900 on the downside, where buyers have gathered, and US$27,400 on the upside, where sellers have gathered, according to Binance’s depth chart.
Ethereum (ETH) had a choppier Tuesday session than bitcoin, having bounced off the US$1,800 support to actually close 0.4% higher at US$1,824 before falling back to US$1,808 this morning.
Litecoin stays on top
Payment network Litecoin’s LTC token continues to outflank the wider blue-chip altcoin set by adding another 3% overnight to bring it up to US$91.69 against the greenback.
Week on week, that brings LTC over 15% higher as it prepares for the next halving event on August 2, when mining distribution will be slashed by 50%.
Ripple (XRP), which is another payment-focused altcoin, is also beating the market with 4.5% of gains over the past seven days.
Dogecoin (DOGE), Solana (SOL) and Polygon (MATIC) are among the worst performers with low-single-digit losses each.
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