An Ethereum withdrawer swiftly sold 10,265 ETH worth $19.1 million at an average selling price of $1,861. According to on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain, this occurred not long after the crypto market crashed as a result of reports of the SEC Vs Binance lawsuit.
The seller in question is presently unknown, and the action is probably a result of the ongoing FUD that has permeated the industry in the wake of the SEC’s legal action against Binance.
This week, the crypto market woke up with a jolt after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Binance accusing its affiliated firms and Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao of breaching US regulations.
In the past 24 hours, digital asset traders lost roughly $320 million of losses in liquidations data by CoinGlass showed, as prices of the cryptos plummeted Monday after the filing.
Bitcoin [BTC], the largest crypto by market capitalization, fell below $26,000 for the first time in over two months.
The second largest digital currency, Ethereum or Ether responded by sliding 3.4 percent to $1,812.2 at the last count, with a market capitalization of nearly $218.1 billion. The trade volume of Eth was almost $9.1 billion in the last 24 hours.
According to Coinglass, the number of long liquidations during the day reached a record high of around $300 million, wiping off traders’ bets on rising prices.
SEC Once Again Avoided Ethereum’s Classification
The decrease was spearheaded by the tokens identified in the lawsuit as unregistered securities, including Binance’s BNB, Solana [SOL], and Cardano [ADA]. These leading altcoins lost as much as 10% during the day.
Notably, Ethereum was kept out of the purview. SEC chair Gary Gensler has on numerous occasions refused to provide clarity on whether Ethereum and its namesake coin count as securities.
Even though regulatory ambiguity poses a challenge for Ethereum, the need to address it remains urgent.
According to former CFTC commissioner and current SEC Counsel, Dan Berkovitz, there are specific legal provisions that allow Ethereum to fall under the purview of both the SEC and the CFTC.
Due to the overlap in the legal definitions of the two terms, it is possible for an asset to be designated as both a commodity and a security, and therefore it is not contradictory for the asset to function as both a security and a commodity, he added.