SEC Rejects Bitcoin ETF, Again

Today the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected the Winklevoss ETF again. Last year in March the SEC already rejected this ETF after delaying the decision as long as it could. But in June the twins submitted a proposed rule change to the ETF, which is now also rejected. Due to the importance of this decision we will change our usual format for Thursday from covering ETH and Dash to BTC and ETH. Don’t worry though, we’ll come back to Dash next week!

Bitcoin Drops on ETF Rejection

Bitcoin prices dropped over 5 percent on the news. The reasons for the rejection echo earlier sentiment by regulators about ‘fraud and manipulation of bitcoin, particularly since this is done in a largely unregulated offshore market.’ The agency added that more than three-fourths of the volume in bitcoin occurs outside the United States, and that 95 percent of the volume occurred on non-U.S. exchanges.

On the technical side we are still in a bullish trend with the breakout above $6,840. Today’s news should worry the bulls as the rally was underpinned by speculation about possible ETF approval in August. With today’s decision and the reasons for the rejection being centered on the bitcoin markets as a whole and not this particular application, that ETF seems dead in the water as well.

However the bears will need a break below $6,646 dollars to end the current uptrend. A move below the $6,000 mark is needed to start a downtrend in prices. On the picture above you can see more potential support and resistance levels. On the weekly chart bitcoin is bearish. The monthly charts is holding onto the bullish bias.

Ether Still in Downtrend

Ether was positively affected by today’s SEC decision, at least versus bitcoin. While ETH/USD is down around 3%, ETH/BTC is up by around 1 percent since the news came out. Ether along with many alts was sold in the days prior as speculation heated up about a possible approval of a bitcoin ETF.

Still, ETH/BTC remains in a downtrend on the daily charts, as you can probably notice from the pic above. A breakout above 0.07168 BTC is needed to end the bear market while a breakout above the 0.07292 BTC swing high would start a new rally. On the longer-term charts there’s no change, Ether is range-bound on the weeklies but bullish on the monthlies.

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