Even as the FTX drama continues, ETH is rallying well. Brazilian lawmakers have also taken a major step toward regulating cryptocurrencies.
If last week was a mixed bag for the largest coin, this week provided the first real sign of gains following the disaster of FTX falling into bankruptcy.
Bitcoin (BTC) is up 2.7% over the past seven days and is currently trading around $17,000. Its closest rival Ethereum (ETH) is up 6.7% at the time of writing and is trading at $1,285.
Markets also fell on Monday on news that crypto lender BlockFi filed for bankruptcy. BlockFi is the latest in a long line of crypto firms to be hit by the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.
Risk assets rallied on Wednesday when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in a speech that December would bring smaller rate hikes. It marks the end of a cycle of rate hikes — three 75 basis-point hikes so far this year — the biggest since 1994.
While nearly all major currencies posted gains, the gains were mostly modest. However, several names enjoyed turbocharged rallies, including Chainlink (LINK) – up 11% to $7.59, Uniswap (UNI) up 12% to $6.12 and Polygon (MATIC) up 8.4% to $0.922278.
Dogecoin (DOGE) is up a staggering 21.5% and is trading near 10 cents at the time of writing.
DOGE’s week-long rally was spurred by a tweet from Twitter’s new CEO, Elon Musk, that included slides from his recent Twitter company presentation. One slide mentioned “payments,” but didn’t elaborate. However, it was enough for the Doge Army to speculate that their favorite coin might be Twitter’s official digital currency. After all, it’s also Musk’s favorite.
Lawmakers and regulators give voice to FTX
Lawmakers around the world continue to monitor and debate the space tirelessly, especially in the wake of two of the biggest disasters of the year – Terra and FTX. On Monday, Brazil’s Congress went further than most, passing a bill legally authorizing cryptocurrencies to be used to pay for goods and services in cryptocurrencies.
The bill, which still needs presidential approval, includes cryptocurrencies and air travel rewards in the definition of “payment agreement” under the oversight of the country’s central bank.
The next day, the European Central Bank issued a condemning document, arguing that Bitcoin’s long-term stable price of around $20,000 before the FTX crash may have been “the last artificially induced gasp before heading towards irrelevance.”
In a blog post, Ulrich Bindseil, ECB Director General for Market Infrastructure and Payments, and advisor Jürgen Schaff also argued that “bitcoin’s conceptual design and technical flaws make it questionable as a payment method.”
Bitcoin-friendly U.S. Senator Cynthia Loomis (R-WY) is a co-sponsor of a bipartisan House bill called the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, calling on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to become the industry’s chief regulator. In a speech recorded at the Financial Times’ Cryptocurrency and Digital Assets Summit, the FTX debacle highlighted the need for Congress to “know more” about cryptocurrencies.
Lummis, dubbed the “Bitcoin Senator” for her cryptocurrency advocacy on Capitol Hill, touted her bill as a “framework” for understanding how to prevent the FTX disaster.
She also noted that FTX was “substantially involved” in drafting the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA), which was endorsed by Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark. ) — She said the bill “needs to rewrite the business model in a more efficient and neutral way, but with a very, very focus on consumer protection.”