Blue chip cryptocurrency markets are in consolidation mode amid thin trading volumes with US market participants away for the Thanksgiving holidays.
Bitcoin (BTC) was last trading in the low $37,000, well within recent weekly ranges and roughly flat in the past 24 hours, while Ether (ETH) was last changing hands around $2,050, also within recent weekly ranges.
With the markets taking a breather on Thursday, traders have more time to mull over recent developments regarding Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by market capitalization.
Binance recently settled criminal lawsuits with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) by paying fines in excess of $7 billion while the exchange’s former CEO was forced to step down and plead guilty to charges levied against him personally.
The news was initially met with panic in the crypto market, but asset prices quickly recovered, with traders assessing the settlement to create more certainty for the market, with an existential risk to Binance as a company having now been removed.
Focus has shifted onto whether recent developments hurt or help the case for the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the coming weeks and months.
Following reports earlier in the week that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is working with digital asset manager Grayscale on their own spot Bitcoin ETF application, optimism for near-term approvals is set to remain high.
Risks thus seem to remain tilted towards more Bitcoin price upside, with the cryptocurrency having formed a bullish ascending triangle structure in recent weeks.
A break above $38,000 would open the door to a swift move above $40,000.
While the outlook for major cryptocurrencies is
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