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Bitcoin Slips Below $63,000 as Reported SEC Delay Tempers Rate-Cut Hopes
Bitcoin fell below the $63,000 mark on Friday, as reports of a significant U.S. regulatory delay for tokenized securities largely offset optimism from softer inflation data and hopes for a pause in Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.
The world's largest cryptocurrency was trading down 1.9% at $62,701.4 as of 10:05 AM ET, bringing its total decline for the week to over 3%, according to Investing.com data. The move highlighted a growing divergence between the crypto market and other risk assets, such as stocks, which have rallied on easing rate fears and strong tech earnings.
SEC Reportedly Delays Key Rules
The primary catalyst for Friday's downturn was a CoinDesk report on Thursday stating that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to further delay a planned "innovation exemption" for tokenized securities. The SEC reportedly canceled a meeting on the matter scheduled for Friday.
According to sources cited by CoinDesk, the delay stems from concerns from both the White House and within the SEC itself. The White House is reportedly worried the move could interfere with ongoing congressional negotiations over the Clarity for Digital Assets Market Act. Meanwhile, SEC staff have raised questions about whether the agency has sufficient legal and economic grounds to support such an exemption.
AdMarket Underperformance
Despite a favorable macroeconomic backdrop, with softer U.S. inflation data on Friday bolstering expectations that the Fed will not raise interest rates in the near term, the broader crypto market failed to rally. Instead, capital appeared to flow towards traditional markets, particularly into AI and semiconductor stocks buoyed by strong corporate earnings.
Other major cryptocurrencies also posted losses, reflecting the broad-based negative sentiment:
- Ethereum (ETH) fell 1.3% to $1,869.14.
- Solana (SOL) and BNB declined by 1.4% and 0.9%, respectively.
- Cardano (ADA) saw a steeper drop of 2.9%.
- XRP was down 0.7%.
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