Top 10 cryptos mixed, SEC again delays decision on ETF

Bitcoin extended losses on Wednesday afternoon in Asia. Most top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies dropped, except Ether, BNB, and Tron. The U.S. SEC on Tuesday again delayed its decision on exchange-traded fund (ETF) application by 21Shares and Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management. 

See related article: JPMorgan’s U.K. bank Chase bans payments linked to crypto

Bitcoin extend losses

Bitcoin dropped 0.21% to US$26,221 in 24 hours to 4.05 p.m. in Hong Kong, bringing its weekly losses to 3.23%, according to CoinMarketCap data. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has managed to stay above the US$26,000 support level for the past 14 days.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) again delayed a decision on whether to approve the first U.S. ETF on a filing from 21Shares and Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management. This is the third time the SEC has delayed its decision since ARK and 21Shares’ original filing in April. 

In a statement on Tuesday, the SEC said, “the Commission finds that it is appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue an order approving or disapproving the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposed rule change and the issues raised therein. Accordingly, the Commission designates January 10, 2024, as the date by which the Commission shall either approve or disapprove the proposed rule change.” 

Seven firms — BlackRock, WisdomTree, Invesco Galaxy, Wise Origin, VanEck, Bitwise and Valkyrie Digital Assets — published ETF applications in the Federal Register on July 19. The SEC was scheduled to rule on all seven applications by Sept. 4. However, the regulator postponed by 45 days meaning the seven firms will now have to wait until mid-October for a decision. 

“This may put the hammer down for any hopes of an ETF approval this year? If they went on Ark/21 shares already, we may see delays on all the other filings today too? In reality my base case is that we will get the “delays” on the other filings tomorrow or sometime this week and the SEC is simply getting ahead of a likely federal government shutdown,” said James Seyffart, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. 

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This may put the hammer down for any hopes of an ETF approval this year? If they went on Ark/21 shares already, we may see delays on all the other filings today too? BlackRock, Bitwise, VanEck, Invesco, Wisdomtree, Fidelity & Valkyrie a all due in mid Oct … pic.twitter.com/XiFbxIrIRK

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) September 26, 2023

Ether rose 0.03% to US$1,590 but is down 2.68% over the last seven days.

Most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies booked losses for the past 24 hours. The exceptions were Ether, BNB, and Tron. 

Toncoin was the biggest loser of the day, dropping 2.13% to US$2.10 in 24 hours and losing 16.32% on the week. 

BNB, the native token of largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, led the winners. It gained 0.29% to US$212, but recorded a weekly loss of 1.60%. The rise in prices comes amid announcement that Binance is collaborating with Japan’s largest banking group Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation to issue fiat-pegged stablecoins in 2024.

Total crypto market capitalization dropped 0.16% to US$1.05 trillion, while market volume fell 11.78% to US$19,71 billion in the past 24 hours.

Forkast 500 NFT drops, sales volume of Pudgy Penguins collection rises 356%

The indexes are proxy measures of the performance of the global NFT market. They are managed by CryptoSlam, a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast.Labs umbrella.

The Forkast 500 NFT index dropped 1.06% to 1,910.85 in 24 hours to 6.40 p.m. in Hong Kong, bringing its weekly losses to 5.31%. 

At the same time, Forkast’s Ethereum and Solana indexes gained while the Polygon index dropped. 

Total NFT sales volume was flat at US$10.64 million, while the number of buyers increased 5.93% to 48,312, according to CryptoSlam data. 

“Last week a majority of the world learned that 95% of non-fungible tokens are worthless,” wrote Yehudah Petscher, NFT strategist at Forkast Labs.  

“Years of experience taught us that the NFT market runs in cycles, with the hot side of the market lasting usually just a few weeks, though the start of the calendar year’s run usually lasts for a few months,” he said.

“Between these runs, most NFTs become completely illiquid and fade into oblivion. When the next cycle comes around they’re replaced by an entirely new crop of NFTs. If I were a betting man I’d say that probably 95% of NFTs become worthless between these cycles. That number only grows as more and more supply is created,” Petscher added.

Among blockchains, Ethereum topped rankings although its sales volume in the past 24 hours dropped 2.43% to US$5.4 million. Mythos and Polygon blockchains ranked second and third respectively.

Among collections, Mythos-based DMarket topped rankings by sales volume, although it dropped 3.14% to  US$975,736 in the past 24 hours. At the same time, sales volume of ImmutableX-based Gods Unchained climbed 82.90% to US$718,593, ranking as the second biggest collection. 

Ethereum-based Pudgy Penguins ranked third among NFT collections as its sales volume jumped 356.50% to US$714,203 in the past 24 hours. The rise comes amid news of Pudgy Toys, with Pudgy World, now available in 2,000 Walmarts in the USA. 

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On this day, Web3 enters a Brave New World.

Pudgy Toys, with Pudgy World, are now available in 2,000 Walmarts in the USA. pic.twitter.com/UP8npUxCr3

— Pudgy Penguins (@pudgypenguins) September 26, 2023

“Maybe most important is that for the most part, collectors and traders haven’t left the NFT economy, even with trade profits nowhere to be found. People believe in the tech, and they believe in the future that NFTs will power,” Petscher said.